The Screening Room

Straining and suffering to pin down your favorite movies of the decade ? I feel your pain. Just filed my Top 25 list. It was a fool's errand; fortunately I was just the fool for the job. The list will run Friday in the Dallas Morning News, or you can check GuideLive.com for the Web version.

Can't reveal my No. 1 yet. Well, I could but then I'd have to kill you. I will say that fans of Wall-E, Mulholland Drive and The Departed will be happy. And I can name a few that didn't make it. No Country For Old Men. Amelie. Anything with a Hobbit. Crash. And hopefully that's enough to get you to read the final list.

We want to know. What are your top movies of the decade? Write in your votes here, where you'll also find places to vote for your top TV shows, music albums and books of the decade. The Wordle visualization above rounds up the votes in all categories so far. We'll post all the results, with the top 3 in each category broken out, the week of Jan. 4. (Look for Chris Vognar's Best Movies of the Decade on Jan. 1.)

Although I love a good drama every now and then, and slasher films are my guilty pleasure, I'm a kid a heart. My top three films of the decade would have to be:

1.) The Dark Knight: What can I say? It's just the best. Heath Ledger helped me see the world through The Joker's eyes, and agree with him.
2.) Coraline: I've been a Neil Gaiman fan since the first Sandman book. So seeing this in theaters was a must. This enchanting story and awesome animation was the first film I saw in 3-D.
3.) Wall-E: So cute, so beautiful and sooo love the score.

Share yours here.

Anyone else super duper excited about this one? This extended trailer was released yesterday.

Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland will be in theaters March 5.

The Golden Globes nominees were announced this morning, which gives us ample time to discuss them until the Jan. 17 awards show. But some quick thoughts:

• I'm thrilled to see Inglourious Basterds and District 9, two of my favorite films this year, get some recognition.
• Am I the only one that chuckled to find that James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow are both nominated for Best Director? I mean, I expected them both to be nominated, but seeing their names together reminded me that they were once married.
• Who would have guessed that, among the cast of the Twilight films, it would be Anna Kendrick (nominated for Up in the Air) who would break away to success first?
• Did anyone expect Tobey Maguire to be nominated? I haven't seen Brothers yet, but that seems like a surprise.
• Sandra Bullock is having the best year of her career: two acting nods? Quite a feat!

Both the New and York and Los Angeles critics groups have tabbed The Hurt Locker as the best film of 2009. Impressive honors for Kathryn Bigelow's Iraq war action flick, especially considering it came out months ago.

But here's the real potential for fun: If Bigelow and her ex-husband James Cameron (Avatar) both get Oscar nods for best director we'll have former spouses going head to head for all the marbles. Consider the trash-talking gold. So you got the Benz and the Malibu beach house. But I got the Oscar glory. Yeah. What.

No one has taken more pleasure in skewering the Disney empire than Robert Smigel (and believe me, he's got plenty of competition). As The Princess and the Frog rolls out today we thought we'd bring you back to TV Funhouse's entirely inappropriate journey to the Disney Vault. Enjoy.

Thanks to Twitter-er Danyel Smith, former Vibe magazine editor-in-chief, I caught this clip on the And the Winner is... blog of comedian/actress/talk-show host Mo'Nique from last month. Fellow actors and friends Taraji P. Henson and Terrence Howard were on her show and ended up educating her both on what she needs to do in order to get her highly-likely Oscar nomination for her role in Precious and what to do afterward.

Entertainment Weekly's Oscar guru Dave Karger wrote about this in October, as word spread that Mo'Nique was reportedly "demanding appearance fees to show up at film festivals." Karger said, "I'd like to think that winning an Academy Award is only about the performance. But we all know that's not true. You have to play the game as well. Many observers still believe one of the reasons Marion Cotillard beat Julie Christie for Best Actress two years ago is because Cotillard worked the circuit hard, especially in the final stretches, while Christie mostly stayed home in England."

For one we can assume Mo'Nique has been busy with her brand new BET late-night talk show, but I think we can all agree with Karger. Ask any average American who wins awards - even titles like homecoming queen or the student council president - and they know, for the most part, it's the people who shake hands all day.

Watch the video below for yourself of Henson and Howard on The Mo'Nique Show. It's kind of long, but you can either just listen to the audio while you work or, like ATWI said, only pay attention to the segment from 3:42 to 9:53.

No review? Well, this might be why ...

Armored': No critics allowed
By Sharon Hoffmann
The Kansas City Star

What is it? Guards at an armored truck company coerce a newbie co-worker into stealing $42 million. But of course the plan goes wrong.
Why didn't Screen Gems show it to the press? The studio, a division of Sony, had no comment.
Why we'd see it: That cast! Laurence Fishburne, Jean Reno and Matt Dillon.
Why we wouldn't: The studio must know something we aren't picking up from the trailers -- how else to explain the critic shutout?

I'll be at the Nasher tonight talking about Christmas movies with Robert Wilonsky, Philip Wuntch, Michael Cain and hopefully you. (Two words: Bad Santa). Here's the schedule for the free event, presented by the Dallas Film Society:

6:30 - Gary Cogill discusses new releases

7 - It's a Wonderful Life

9:15-ish - Christmas movie discussion.

Stop on by.

The National Board of Review has picked Up in the Air as its best film of the year. The past three winners - The Departed, No Country For Old Men and Slumdog Millionaire - all went on to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

I'm not doing a Top Ten this year (missed the first half of the year; I'll do a Top 25 of the decade instead). But Up in the Air was my favorite of what I saw. Why? Check here tomorrow for my review. Yes, that's a tease.

It might be a bit of a stretch posting this on the movies blog, but I just gotta share this trailer for a 25-minute short that was six years in the making (by Alex Kobbs of Kobberz Studios) and is due out early next year.
Legos + Halo + stop motion = Awesomeness.

Are you tired of all the end-of-the-world movies yet? Well, doesn't matter. Because this is not another 2012 or The Day After Tomorrow. This Hughes brothers film goes all post-apocalyptic in a Fallout 3-like setting where men with machetes and big guns fight for The Book of Eli. Loner Eli (Denzel Washington) protects at all costs a book that holds the secrets that could save humanity, while the bad guys (led by Gary Oldman) try to take it. Lots of action. Lots of fun. And it's nice to finally see Mila Kunis in a tough-girl role, one that looks like might suit her.

Hits theaters Jan. 15. What do you think of it?