MOVIE BUZZ – M. Night Shyamalan’s newest movie is being mercilessly made fun of in reviews and on internet boards.Christopher Orr instant-classic tear-down review in The New Republic isn’t even a review — it’s a long spoiler meant to ensure a reader won’t go see the film and thereby waste time and money. The blog reaction is just as dire.

The Best Links:

1. Don’t See “The Happening,” Just Read This Instead
2. M. NIGHT-MARE: Another Stupid Flick From Shyamalan
3. Is “The Happening” Actually One Long Creationist Screed?
4. We Hate Shyamalan!
5. “A better title for M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening would be Nonsense”
6. “M. Night Shyamalan Breaks Wind”
7. Bad, Bad Ratings on Rotten Tomatoes

CELEBRITY BUZZ – The Jewish-French-Moroccan actress is getting ever higher-profile roles.She just appeared in Adam Sandler’s You Don’t Mess With The Zohan, and is currently filming Cadillac Records with Adrien Brody, Beyoncé and Mos Def. Also worth noting: Very hot.

The Best Links:

1. Emmanuelle Chriqui Talks About Her Favorite Designers
2. Emmanuelle Chriqui, Pretty in Pink
3. Emmanuelle Chriqui on Jimmy Kimmel for “Don’t Mess with the Zohan”
4. Emmanuelle Chriqui’s Career

MOVIE BUZZ – A rom-com/slasher film, set in the woods, is the world’s first mumblecore horror movie.This looks suitably endearing to be unsettling, in the sense that a person with a paper bag over their head is both scary and laughable.

The Best Links:

1. “Baghead” Has an Unusual Distribution Scheme
2. “Baghead” Trailer
3. Funny, and Yet Also Scary
4. Sundace Review: The Horror Isn’t Harrowing, But Provides Actual Characters

MOVIE BUZZ – A trailer for the new Coen Brothers’ movie hits the web.It doesn’t have a release date yet, but a Coen Bros. outing with George Clooney, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton and Brad Pitt kind of sells itself. And Pitt’s highlighted hair almost gives Javier Bardem’s bowl-cut a run for its ugly, ugly money.

Watch the Video »

The Best Links:

1. Burn After Reading Plot Summary
2. Hi-Def Burn After Reading Trailer (Annoying iTunes Link)

MOVIE BUZZ – Panned by the Times and New Yorker, with tepid reviews elsewhere, the movie’s opening weekend will still probably be huge.No one ever compared Sex and the City to The Wire — Dickensian it ain’t — but most people don’t care, they just want to see Carrie buy expensive clothes and talk about love.

The Best Links:

1. 5 Ways to Dismiss The Sex and the City Movie
2. “All the Film Lacks is a Subtitle: ‘The Lying, the Bitch, and the Wardrobe.’ “
3. “A little Botox goes a long way in “Sex and the City,” but a little decent writing would have gone even further.”
4. “Sex and the City is singlehandedly responsible for a measurable uptick in the number of materialistic twits in New York City and perhaps the world”
5. “No one here is more disappointing, or more frustrating, than Parker.”
6. “The finale the show should’ve had”

MOVIE BUZZ – A peek inside the varied world of people who love making balloons into something more.Sort of like a Wordplay for the ballon-twister set, the documentary takes you to “Twist and Shout,” a balloon twisting convention, and the lives of eight twisters. It’ll be playing at select theaters across the country this summer.

The Best Links:

1. A New Twist on Balloon Sculpture
2. Twisted - A Balloonamentary
3. Official TWISTED: A Balloonamentary Trailer
4. The Balloonamentary Blog

MOVIE BUZZ – Starring Zach Galifianakis in the strangest trailer of the year.I have no idea what this movie is really about, but it’s worth noting for two reasons. 1) Zach Galifianakis. 2) It outdoes those bizarre homemade Mike Gravel ads in terms of surreality.

The Best Links:

1. Visioneers Trailer
2. “This might actually be everything you’ve ever wanted.”
3. Is This Embracing or Mocking Quirk? It’s Hard to Tell
4. “In a just world, Zach Galifianakis would be a movie star.”
5. V I S I O N E E R S — Official Site
6. Visioneers (2008)

MOVIE BUZZ – Nick Broomfield’s movie about one corner of the Iraq War finally comes to the U.S.The Haditha killings were one of the worst civilian casualty incidents of the war — 24 men, women and children were killed by a group of Marines after a roadside bombing, though all charges against the soldiers involved were dropped after an investigation. The movie looks at what happened from several different angles.

The Best Links:

1. “Battle For Haditha” Trailer
2. Salon.com: “The Iraq movie we’ve been waiting for”
3. Filmmaker Nick Broomfield’s Homepage
4. The Times: “Will this be Iraq’s Apocalypse Now?”
5. “Haditha Killings Recall Vietnam’s My Lai”
6. Background On the Haditha Killings
7. The Film Doesn’t Blame, But Shows Both Sides
8. Battle for Haditha on IMDB (2007)

MOVIE BUZZ – Tony Stark’s Girl Friday is getting love as a superhero assistant/sex symbol.Gwyneth Paltrow may have undone the badness of Sliding Doors and Shallow Hal with her turn in Iron Man.

The Best Links:

1. Gwynnie’s Pepper Potts High Heels Spark Trend
2. Gwyneth Paltrow’s Pepper Potts: Surprisingly Super
3. Gwyneth Paltrow Plays Pepper Potts, Answers Questions
4. Which Pepper Potts Do You Prefer?
5. Not Everyone Hearts Gywenth as Potts
6. The Background on Pepper Potts
7. Let’s Call Her “Iron Ankles”

MOVIE BUZZ – The new, Heath Ledger-inspired version of the Joker doll has been selling out in New York.Collectors are making it hard for the kiddies to get a hold of one of these — apparently to drive up the prices of the dolls online.

The Best Links:

1. Classy Opening: “Toy peddlers are laughing all the way to the bank…”
2. New Doll Looks A Lot Like Ledger
3. Heath Ledger Joker Dolls On eBay
4. “Brush Your Teeth, or Dead Heath Ledger Joker Doll Will Get You!”
5. Still Profiting From Ledger’s Untimely Death