Cinematical

The 20th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray and DVD of Say Anything came out yesterday, and to mark the occasion, numerous men with lots of free time dressed up in trench coats and hoisted boomboxes above their heads and marched throughout New York City serenading people with the strains of Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes," and a cover version of the same song by The Lloyd Dobler Effect. Check them out in the gallery below.

Damn, that movie came out 20 years ago? That makes me feel incredibly old. The first time I saw that movie will be forever burned into my brain since it was my first and only date with the captain of the women's volleyball team in high school. However, the movie on Blu-ray looks better than it ever did back in theaters, circa 1989, and hopefully it'll inspire legions of Lloyd Dobler fans for years to come that will fare better than I did.

The Blu-ray version of the movie is a 1080p high-definition upgrade of the original DVD release from 2002, along with a newly remastered 5.1 audio mix. In addition to the upgraded image and sound, this includes all the features from the previous version (commentary from Cameron Crowe, John Cusack, Ione Skye, deleted scenes, and more), along with three new featurettes. The best of the bunch is "An Iconic Film Revisited: Say Anything... 20 Years Later" featuring new interviews with Crowe, Cusack, Skye, John Mahoney, and Nancy Wilson.

Let's face it, your the hero of your movie is only as good as your villain is bad. If you've got an amazing, swashbuckling, ass-kicking hero who faces off against someone wimpy, it just feels like you had an amazing appetizer and a lackluster main course. We want villains that we love to hate, not villains that we hate to love, and once we find them, we don't want to let go of them so easily. Just look at how much Darth Vader has dominated the world of villainy. He was in four of the six Star Wars movies, and is still pretty much the poster-boy for awesome villains.

But what about the villains who could have joined him? There's a whole slew of sub-villains who weren't given enough screen time, or were killed off too easily. Villains who deserve to roam the hallowed halls of the bad guys and girls club. We dedicate this Cinematical Seven to those who could have been great, but are instead relegated to the ranks of the Almost Perfect Villains Club.

Darth Maul

Speaking of Star Wars, Did this guy get a bad rap or what? He a Dark Lord of the Sith for pete's sake, yet he hardly talks, zips around on a scooter, and gets killed at the end of the only movie he appears in. He does kill Obi Wan's mentor, sure, but why not keep him around for later? He looked scary and cool at the same time, and wielded very cool double-ended saber. Plus, Ray Park did a kickass job playing him and making those fight scenes look amazing. Unfortunately, one chop to the midsection and he was never heard from again. Darth Vader went on to become a legend, but Darth Maul only became "that guy with the red face and the horns," and no one is rushing to make a movie about his origins. The Star Wars saga actually has a plethora of great villains we would like to see more of: Jabba the Hutt, Grand Moff Tarkin, Boba Fett, IG-88, and more.

John Woo's Red Cliff isn't just the most expensive Asian movie ever made, it's also an epic testament to history and actual wars that were waged on both land and sea. In China the film was four hours long and split into two parts, but American audiences are getting a 2.5 hour version that (unfortunately) has a lot trimmed out of it. There are massive battles, martial arts, trickery, and of course, doves. It is a John Woo film, after all. It is also awesome, and enough to make you forget that he directed Paycheck.

Check out the exclusive clip after the jump which features the initiation of the climactic clash between Cao Cao and Zhou Yu's forces. This is just one of three massive battles in the film which is available today on VOD, Amazon, and the Xbox, and will appear in theaters on November 18th. This movie marks a return of the old John Woo, and it's about time he came back. Let's just hope he'll give us a two-gun wielding Chow Yun-Fat one more time.

Head on after the break to watch the clip and then check out the movie, which is best described as 300 meets Hero with a dash of those huge battles from all of the Lord of the Rings films tossed in.

Click image below to view full poster

The scariest movie coming out this year isn't about a murderous psycho or a ghostly demon who terrorizes a couple in their own home. It's Chris Smith's (American Movie, The Yes Men) documentary Collapse, where one man uncannily outlines the dark path our nation and world are heading down. He's no Nostradamus talking about the "great bear from the east" or anything, he's just a normal guy using the same facts and figures available to everyone.

The exclusive poster might only feature the back of his head, but once you hear Michael Ruppert talk (he's a bit like The Smoking Man on The X-Files), you'll realize why the truth is much scarier than fiction. The movie opens in New York on 11/6, Los Angeles on 11/13, and will be released on cable video on demand on the Cinetic FilmBuff channel on 11/15. Bug your provider now if you don't already get it -- this is one you definitely don't want to miss.

Check out the full poster by clicking the image below.

Michael Bay has a lot to atone for. He's become the cinematic whipping boy of bad, over the top, explosion-filled movies, which are of course also his forte. But he could rectify most of that in one fell swoop, and it's by doing something that he's already considering: killing off Megan Fox. Okay, to be fair, we mean killing off her annoying character Mikaela in Transformers. It might not make us forgive everything, but it's huge step in the right direction.

There's no love lost between Bay and Fox. She called him "Hitler" and said you had to be a genius to understand Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (was she watching an unseen Criterion cut of the film?). He had his own words to say, and had several cast members rally to his defense in a letter-writing flurry that detailed how bitchy and hard to work with Ms. Fox was. Things have escalated to a level where he's reportedly considering killing her off in the next Transformers film. At this point we're surprised he'd be bringing her back at all, because a simple "Ever since Mikaela left for that mechanics study course in Germany" line and she's out of the film.

But the fact that he's considering killing her off is deliciously evil, because it means he wants to bring her back just to kill her off onscreen. Not since Paris Hilton got waxed in the House of Wax remake have people been anticipating the demise of a celebutart. We're ready to get Halloween rolling by including Michael Bay among our best villains and suggesting some creative ways he might take care of the problem. Read on after the break and find out how Megan Fox might bite it in Transformers 3.

Dolph Lundgren isn't the first name that springs to mind when you think "chemical engineer," is it? You might be surprised to know that the guy who has made a career out of playing muscular bad dudes in movies has a masters in that field from the University of Sydney, and he was also a Fulbright scholar to MIT. However, he dropped out after two weeks to pursue acting full time, and that's left us with his performances in everything from Rocky IV to The Punisher to Universal Soldier.

He'll also be going toe to toe with Sylvester Stallone once more in The Expendables, but we found him returning to his Universal Soldier roots at Fantastic Fest in Austin with a sneak peek at Universal Soldier: A New Beginning. Read on beyond the break for the full interview, including an homage to Rocky IV that you'll see in onscreen.

Cory McAbee is not your average indie filmmaker. He's more of a self-taught Renaissance man who paints, writes, composes music, and also directs mind-bending films. At Sundance earlier this year, I had a slot to fill in my schedule and I thought Stingray Sam sounded interesting. Science fiction meets the Western? Sign me up.

What I didn't know was that I would be treated to a bizarre musical that was sliced up into a serialized format, complete with dance numbers, elaborate 60-second long handshakes between partners, and social commentary on everything from the U.S. prison system to tobacco companies. It's great stuff, and the songs will stick with you long after the movie ends.

Cory is no stranger to film festivals, having been at Sundance with three different films. I spoke with Cory at Fantastic Fest, where he was screening Stingray Sam. Check out the full interview after the break.

Director Jess Franco was on-hand at Fantastic Fest during a screening of his 1969 film Venus in Furs, and he was surprised by the presentation of a Lifetime Achievement Sword. Lars Nilsen, film guru extraordinaire of the Drafthouse presented the award as part of the celebration of Franco's films going on during Fantastic Fest. The festival officially opened last Wednesday with a midnight screening of Franco's Eugenie: The Story of Her Journey into Perversion (1980), and since then they've shown Succubus (1968), and The Bare Breasted Countess (1973).

Franco has directed nearly 200 films since 1957, up to and including A Bad Day At The Cemetery from 2008. He's worked tirelessly in Spanish cinema as everything from composer, writer, cinematographer, and editor for years, and his films are truly different. To dismiss them as arthouse schlock is a crime, and if you have a chance you should seek out one of the three films featured on this special Franco poster created for Fantastic Fest. They are chock full of oddities, nudity, and era-specific slang.

The Fantastic Fest 2009 Awards are out, and as far as awards go, what can top a mug full of beer as the actual award? The mug is what you'll take home and put on your shelf, but an icy, cold beer is the real treat. As an example of how off-kilter Fantastic Fest is, the awards opened with the Best Shakeyface award. These were presented to badgeholders who submitted the best shakeyface photo, a Fantastic Fest staple.

There was much beer drinking, celebrating, and in the end a sword was used to open a bottle of champagne as everyone raised a toast to the 2009 winners. Highlights included Human Centipede as the Best Horror Feature, Down Terrace as the Best Next Wave Feature, and Mandrill as the Best Fantastic Feature, while A Town Called Panic took home the Audience Award for Best Feature. Check out the full list of winners, watch the Shakeyface video and more just beyond the break.

John C. Reilly is one of my most favorite actors working today. It's to the point that I'll watch a mediocre film just to see his performance in it. Case in point: Step Brothers. Not that it was a completely terrible movie, but I didn't love it. However, Reilly does some subtle things in it that just kill me. His added "Boats and Hoes" lyric during Will Ferrell's heartfelt song in the climax was one of the funniest moments in the movie. Then there's his brilliant understated role in The Promotion, a film that needs more attention.

But I digress. I met with Reilly after a screening of Fantastic Fest's premiere of Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, in which he plays Larten Crepsley, a 200+ year old vampire. He's seen a lot during his lifetime, and he has a jaded outlook on it all. Find out what drew Reilly to the role in the full interview beyond the break, where he also talks about other roles he'd like to take on.