Money doesn't always buy happiness -- or cinematic sensation. You can spend serious dough and still wind up with a total flop. But you can also max out your credit cards, call in favors from all your Facebook friends, and maybe -- just maybe -- take things blockbuster. (Case in point: Lee Daniels' stirring indie drama Precious, which sparked instant Oscar buzz despite its humble $3 million origins.) These movies were all made on a shoestring and went on to earn their keep and, in most case, many millions more. Sometimes, all it takes is a dollar and a dream -- and a really, really good idea.

Paranormal Activity (2009)
Production Budget: $15,000; Domestic Gross: $84 million
This supernatural thriller scared up amazing box office numbers despite having been made with the kind of spare change the director could have found under his couch cushions. Against formidable odds,  this claustrophobic ghost story was so good, remake-happy Paramount released it without changing a thing.

Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
Production Budget $400,000; Domestic Gross $44 million
This clean-as-a-whistle celebration of geek chic divided audiences, but it sold enough tickets to qualify as a stunning success. Director Jared Hess, front-loaded the cast and crew with current and former students of his alma mater, Brigham Young University to keep things on the cheap. Who knew Mormons would prove so theatrically viable?

Continue reading "Not All Movies Need Big Budgets, as Precious and Paranormal Activity Go to Show" »

In 1972, ufologist Josef Allen Hynek categorized the three kinds of alien encounters, from UFO sightings to alien observations. Ufologists have since created a fourth classification: Alien abduction! The scifi thriller The Fourth Kind explores the phenomenon, as have so any movies in the past. Here's a look at ten cinematized abductions. Some of these characters' captors are evil incarnate, but others, as it turns out, are just overly curious intergalactic anthropologists.

10. Alex Rogan (Lance Guest), The Last Starfighter (1984)
This may not have all the benchmark traits of an alien abduction movie, but one scene says it all: When Centauri shows up at Alex's trailer park, he charms the glum starfighter into his car by praising his arcade skills! Once Alex is strapped in, Centauri whisks his bewildered passenger into outer space. The fact that Alex ends up having the time of his life (what, no probes?) lands this one at the bottom of the list.

9. Sam Phillips (Philip Sayer), Xtro (1982)
In this disturbing, gory low-budget flick, a father is playing with his son in their backyard when he suddenly gets sucked up by a beam of white light. He returns to Earth three years later to find his wife and son, but something is different. Could it be his ability to transform into a freaky creature with four legs? Bingo! The movie's ending -- no spoilers here -- makes it one of the starker abduction movies to date.

Continue reading "Classic Ten - Alien Abductions" »

There's no arguing the fact that Al Pacino's one of the fiercest actors of his generation. Still, despite the nuanced portrayals he's delivered over the decades, there's nothing better than when Pacino works himself up into a mindless rage. The movies in which he does so may not be his best -- at least not in the traditional sense -- but there's nothing more entertaining than when Pacino lets his freak flag fly. As he does in...

The Recruit (2003)
While this conspiracy pic is far from Pacino's best work, it does contain a few of those moments where you have to wonder whether Al Pacino might actually be nuts in real life. When Colin Farrell foils a scheme he's cooked up, Pacino, cornered, totally loses it, yelling, "I'm obsolete! I'm irrelevant! Me! Shame on you! You yank me home, you shove me out in the woods!" It's a glorious moment for any true Pacino fan.

Any Given Sunday (1999)
As a typically acerbic, old-school coach, Pacino puts his own stamp on that sports flick staple: The motivational speech. Is anyone better equipped to raise his volume, decibel by decibel, as he hammers on about gaining success in football inch until he's finally spitting and screaming in all his Pacino-esque glory? By the time he's finished, nobody on that team can even consider losing that game.

Continue reading "Al Pacino's Great, and He's Even Better When He Taps Into His Inner Monster" »

Who says a horror movie can't also be a work of art? There's no reason aesthetics have to go out the window when fear comes in the door. This Halloween, enjoy a little culture with your horror, and gasp in admiration as you cling to the edge of your seat. Read on for eight picks that combine viscera with vision. Call them the bloody and the beautiful -- or just sit back and enjoy the show.

The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Not all art needs to be slick. This ragged-looking feature employed a wildly successful viral marketing campaign nearly as impressive as the finished film. Their purposefully disorienting shooting style -- like a home video made by someone suffering from delirium tremens -- only ramps up the atmosphere of dislocation, anxiety and, eventually, sheer panic. When else has a little bundle of sticks looked so scary?

Dead Ringers (1988)
David Cronenberg always gets points for originality, and this movie's no exception: How many films have you seen about twin gynecologist barbiturate addicts in love with the same woman? But the major props here go to star Jeremy Irons: It takes one hell of an actor to play two identical parts that the viewer can tell apart -- even when one character is impersonating the other. The horrifying dream sequences are just the icing on the cake.

Continue reading "Seriously Scary - Horror Movies That Qualify as Art" »

Sure, you could go out and buy a trendy costume based on the most popular movie in theaters -- though Max costumes from Where the Wild Things Are sold out before the pic was even released. Luckily, there's no shortage of ideas at the movies: Screenwriters love to use Halloween as a way of making their characters look extra ridiculous. (Or unrecognizable. Or just plain scary.) Read on for a list of the top ten movie meta-costumes worthy of copycatting this Halloween.

10. E.T. in E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial (1982)
A ghost costume is like the muumuu of Halloween costumes -- it covers up a whole host of ills, including, in some cases, the fact that you're an alien. Still, while the ghost look was subtle and useful, E.T. really should have considered his "Gertie's closet" ensemble as an alternative. Positive points for functionality balancing out negative points for creativity equal out to the bottom spot on this list.

9. Dani (Thora Birch) in Hocus Pocus (1993)
At first you might not think Dani's witch costume is all that, but take a closer look at the way the movie's actual witches are dressed and you'll see that she's nailed it! Even better, it provides excellent cover when blending with trick-or-treaters on the street in order to avoid capture. For the ability to channel her inner mismatched-hag, Dani takes ninth place.

Continue reading "Classic Ten - Movie Characters in All Their Halloween Costumed Glory" »

Halloween is less than a week away and that means it's time for candy, costumes and scary movies. While most fright flicks share one of a few common threads -- masked killers, murderous monsters -- not each and every scary movie comes in that same wrapping. In fact, some of the scariest moments at the movies are courtesy of genres where you'd least expect to find them. Are you easily frightened? Then be sure to add the following to your "Do Not Watch" list!

The Butterfly Effect (2004)
It's hard to imagine anything involving Ashton Kutcher as scary, but The Butterfly Effect is seriously creepy. Kutcher, as a collegiate with a troubled past, finds a way to change the worst events of his life only to realize he's initiated The Butterfly Effect and caused things to get worse and worse. Replete with freaky flashbacks, life just keeps become more like a nightmare. It's hard to shake this one off. Seriously!

Pi (1998)
Anyone with even the smallest penchant for paranoia should never, ever watch Pi. The harrowing tale of paranoid mathematical genius Max (Sean Gullette) is enough to make any neurotic think that someone really is after them. For Max, stumbling upon a 216-digit number in his work as a mathematician leads to pursuit by Biblical zealots, increasingly painful headaches, and trippy hallucinations until he finally takes a drill to his own temple.

Continue reading "Cartoons, Conspiracy Flicks, and A Clockwork Orange - Non-Horror Movies Terrify Too" »

Has it really been 30 years since Sigourney Weaver changed the face of science fiction and popular cinema with Alien? For James Cameron's upcoming Avatar, Weaver is returning to the genre that first propelled her to fame. But Weaver's career encompasses more than just blockbusters. Here are ten of the lesser-known, but equally admirable, movies to her credit:

Eyewitness (1981)
For her follow-up to Alien, Weaver came back to Earth to star in Peter Yates' (Bullitt) tense thriller/love story. Playing a sharp TV talking head, Weaver demonstrated an early devotion to research by trailing a real TV anchorwoman to imitate her distinctive vocal mannerism. Meanwhile, co-star William Hurt reportedly moonlighted as a janitor to prepare for his role.

Deal of the Century (1983)
The year before Weaver starred opposite SNL alums Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd in Ghostbusters, she turned up as Chevy Chase's girlfriend in this lesser-known madcap comedy. While the creative team behind this war satire is head and shoulders above the usual Chevy Chase-fare (director William Friedkin helmed The French Connection; writer Paul Brickman penned Risky Business), Deal of the Century was a box office flop. Weaver, however, emerged unscathed.

Continue reading "Sigourney Weaver's Movie Credits Go Beyond Alien and Ghostbusters" »

It may seem as if Mad Men's beloved Jon Hamm came out of thin air a couple years back. But in reality, you've probably seen his handsome mug before and just not realized it. Like the persevering Peggy Olsons and Pete Campbells of the world, Hamm paid his dues moving up the ladder. Would the casting directors have done better to give him more prominent parts given his success as Don Draper, ad man extraordinaire? Of course! Read on for a roundup of his early movie roles -- the first tiny drops in a long, wave-making career.

Dr. Michael Granier in The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)
In this scifi release, Hamm plays a NASA scientist whose team is studying an alien who has taken human form on Earth. Strutting around in the blue-green light of his lab, Hamm assists us in understanding the science in the story -- including the most important discovery in the history of mankind! (Which, according to Keanu Reeves, is not Mad Men.)

Skydiving Guide Chris Knarl in The Ten (2007)
There are worse men with whom to share a tandem free fall than Don Draper. (That pipe-smoking Paul Kinsey, for one.) But the allure eludes Adam Brody, who forgets to grab hold before leaping from the plane in this movie. Brody should have at least strapped on his parachute, which is what Hamm is left holding as Brody falls to the ground... yet not his death

Continue reading "Extend Your Jon Hamm Obsession to His Filmography" »

The fact that Hollywood has gone sequel-mad is well-covered territory by now. So long as it delivers decently at the box office, a movie will have a sequel and it will be announced instantly after a movie's release, if not before. But what's the deal with the recent spate of high-profile sequels that come decades after the last installation? Nostalgia has its limits, and it wasn't enough to carry the movies that follow.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
Where to start? For some reason, the writers thought that updating Indy (Harrison Ford)'s enemies from Nazis to Communists would make the movie more timely, which would have been brilliant... had it been 1988. And watching an aging Ford valiantly attempt to pass himself off as an action star, while painful, isn't nearly as bad as the attempt to pass off Shia LaBeouf as his greaser successor. No thanks.

Rambo (2008)
When First Blood (1982) was released, the story of a Vietnam vet unable to adjust to civilian life had serious resonance. How about more than two decades later, by the time of the belated fourth flick, Rambo? Eh, not so much. This time Rambo lives near the Burmese border and becomes embroiled in the nation's civil unrest, which didn't exactly pique the nation's 2008 mood, over-extended as it was. The only good news? Stallone had, somehow, barely aged since the '70s. A mystery for the ages

Continue reading "No, You're Not Having a Flashback. Belated Sequels Are Messing With Your Mind." »

Throughout the history of cinema, there have been movies about curses (Drag Me to Hell), and movies that were just plain cursed (The Love Guru). But whenever something tragic occurs on the set of a pic in production, conspiracy theorists are quick to dub the movie "cursed." Hogwash, you say! But some movie sets have seen so many mishaps, accidental deaths, and reported hauntings, it's hard not to feel like there are dark forces afoot. Squeeze your lucky rabbit's foot; there's trouble ahead...

The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010)
Though still in production, this Nic Cage fantasy flick has already spurred rumors of a curse. Last May, a stunt Ferrari careened out of control, crashing into a pizza joint and injuring two pedestrians. Then, just two days later, an SUV smashed into a parked car near the set, injuring nine others. Accidents often occur on movie sets, but the proximity -- in a film about dark magic -- is more than a little creepy. Kind of like Cage's leather getup and cheesy hat.

The Dark Knight (2008)
Besides Heath Ledger's untimely death, a number of other tragic occurrences plagued the set of this hit. Early in production, stunt testing on the Batmobile resulted in the death of technician Conway Wickliffe. Later, Londoners were frightened by explosions created by the crew, prompting fears of a possible terrorist attack. This was also the time period during which Christian Bale earned his irascible-actor rep. Is it too early to predict a Batman curse?

Continue reading "The Dark Knight and The Omen May Have Been Scarier to Their Casts Than to Audiences" »