Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd have great screen chemistry, as we first saw in The Object of My Affection. You can imagine our delight when we heard about their re-teaming in Wanderlust. The film is a true comic farce, which doesn’t forget the heart.

Rudd and Aniston play a married Manhattan couple. Right after they buy their dream “mini-loft,” her documentary gets rejected by HBO and his company is closed by the government for fraud. What’s a pair of soul mates to do? Unfortunately with no other options, they pack up and drive to Atlanta, where Rudd’s brother lives. As established early, this guy is -- how do we put this nicely -- a jerk.

Moments before they arrive in Atlanta, the late-night hour gets to the couple and they pull over at a B&B in northern Georgia. Welcome to Elysium, a commune. Don’t say that hippie-associated word near Justin Theroux’s character, the leader of our fair communal troupe. Like the classic Clash song, soon Aniston and Rudd are asking Should I Stay or Should I Go? One night at the brother’s house is all they need to answer that question. In a truly funny movie, the scenes in the Atlanta mansion where Rudd’s brother lives are among the film’s most hilarious.

They give themselves two weeks to see if they can handle Elysium. The film truly gets going when it dives into what it means to be a part of a community where everyone shares everything. What appears to be a pure life of living without boundaries clearly is not without complications. Rudd is the first to see this and thus where our film’s conflict arises from.

Wanderlust Red Band Trailer

Rudd and Aniston are a dream team of comic couplehood. Their play off of each other is effortless. But, they are not the true stars of the film. That award goes to Theroux and his enigmatic Seth. How the actor says the lines he emits and is able to deliver them with such humorous panache is beyond what we expected. He single-handedly raises Wanderlust from an average fish-out-of-water comedy and brings it to Nirvana.

There are obvious scenes where director David Wain (Role Models) allowed his actors to go off on an improvisational path. The performer who takes that baton and runs with it the most is Rudd. In one particular sequence, he takes what could have been awkwardly mundane and made it legendary. His comedy chops have never been called into question. Yet after witnessing him in a fall-on-the-floor hilarious scene with Elysium resident Malin Akerman that was clearly improv gone wild, our high esteem for the actor crept ever higher.

The Artist began its march to Oscar glory today as it took the top prize at the annual Independent Spirit Awards. The film scored Best Feature, Male Lead, Best Director and Best Cinematography. Other big winners at the independent film fest awards that is held on the beach in Santa Monica were Michelle Williams in a shocking win as Female Lead for her work on My Week with Marilyn. And Supporting Female provided a shocker as well with Shailene Woodley earning a victory for her work on The Descendants.

Christopher Plummer won for Best Supporting Male for Beginners while the screenwriters from The Descendants scored for Best Screenplay. Look for them to also win the Oscar in the same category (as we call it in our Oscar predictions).

Independent Spirit Award Winners:

FEATURE
The Artist - Producer: Thomas Langmann

MALE LEAD
Jean Dujardin - The Artist

FEMALE LEAD
Michelle Williams - My Week with Marilyn

SUPPORTING MALE
Christopher Plummer - Beginners

SUPPORTING FEMALE
Shailene Woodley - The Descendants

DIRECTOR
Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist

SCREENPLAY
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash - The Descendants

FIRST FEATURE
Margin Call - Director: J.C. Chandor; producers: Robert Ogden Barnum, Michael Benaroya, Neal Dodson, Joe Jenckes, Corey Moosa, Zachary Quinto

FIRST SCREENPLAY
Will Reiser - 50/50

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD
Pariah - Writer/Director: Dee Rees; Producer: Nekisa Cooper

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Guillaume Schiffman - The Artist

DOCUMENTARY
The Interrupters - Director/Producer: Steve James; Producer: Alex Kotlowitz

INTERNATIONAL FILM
A Separation (Iran) - Director: Asghar Farhadi

AUDI SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD
Mark Jackson - Without

PIAGET PRODUCERS AWARD
Sophia Lin - Take Shelter

TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD
Heather Courtney - Where Soldiers Come From

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD
Margin Call, Director: J.C. Chandor; casting Director: Tiffany Little Canfield, Bernard Telsey
Ensemble Cast: Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Mary McDonnell, Demi Moore, Zachary Quinto, Kevin Spacey, Stanley Tucci

The real life Navy SEALs rocked the box office as the film that they star in, Act of Valor, stormed its way to the top of the weekend box office. The film banked $24.7 million, easily besting the second place finisher, the Tyler Perry-written, directed and starring movie Good Deeds.

A holdover from weeks’ past, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, continued its box office success. The sequel to Journey to the Center of the Earth added another $13.5 million to its total of $76.7 million. Think we’ll get a third? Bet on it!

Last week’s number one film, Denzel Washington’s Safe House, came in fourth with $11.4 million while the romance The Vow took fifth with $10 million. 

What we at Movie Fanatic are curious to see is how today’s Oscars will affect next week’s box office. Will The Artist, The Descendants or Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close make its way back into the top 10? We shall see.

Box office top 10:

1. Act of Valor, $24.7 million
2. Good Deeds, $16 million
3. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, $13.5 million
4. Safe House, $11.4 million
5. The Vow, $10 million
6. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, $8.8 million
7. This Means War, $8.5 million
8. Wanderlust, $6.6 million
9. Gone, $5 million
10. The Secret World of Arrietty, $4.5 million

Movie Fanatic is in Hollywood, more than ready to tackle the 2012 Academy Awards. Either to accompany your watching of the big show on ABC with Billy Crystal hosting, or, if you can’t get near a TV, we have you covered with an Oscar play-by-play! From Crystal’s opening to the award of Best Picture, stay with us throughout the evening as Tinseltown’s biggest night unfolds.

8:30 p.m. Morgan Freeman takes the stage and we're off! "This magnificent event allows us to celebrate the present and celebrate the past," he eloquently said.

8:31 p.m. Billy Crystal parodies The Artist in his opening bit as his year in movies montage begins. Now, Billy's where Clooney's onscreen wife is in The Decendants. Clooney kisses Crystal! The host is in Moneyball and Jonah Hill is game for being part of it. Justin Bieber jokes about getting the 18 to 24-year-old demographic as they spoof Midnight in Paris. Eating Octavia Spencer's pie in The Help... it's Billy! Now, Crystal is Tintin, not so sure. Will tell you one thing: It's glorious that Crystal is back!

8:36 p.m. Crystal takes the stage to thunderous applause, rightfully so. He is our generation's Bob Hope. Wow! His opening song manages to get all nine nominated films. Although the sound mixing is off, the music's too loud and we cannot hear all of Crystal's lyrics. But, we're getting most of it. "Nine is the new five," Crystal said as the song concludes!

8:41 p.m. Tom Hanks comes out to give the first award, Best Cinematography. The winner is: Hugo! Movie Fanatic predicted it! Second, Hanks announces Best Art Direction. And the winner is... Hugo. We're on a roll... two for two!

8:47 p.m. Had no idea that Sheila E. is leading the Oscar band... great call!

8:50 p.m. Crystal introduces a salute to movies montage that includes Forrest Gump, Titanic, Twilight, The Princess Bride, Avatar, Ghost, The Godfather, Star Wars and Jaws.

8:54 p.m. Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Lopez take the stage to award Best Costume. Appropriate since those two have won their fair share of fantastic costumes. The winner is: The Artist. Movie Fanatic is three for three in predictions!

8:55 p.m. Diaz and Lopez stay on the Kodak Theatre stage to present Best Makeup. After Diaz and Lopez ham it up to no laughs, except for this guy... your winner is The Iron Lady!

9:00 p.m. A slew of Hollywood heavyweights including Helen Mirren, Tom Cruise, Barbra Streisand, Adam Sandler, Reese Witherspoon and Freeman all extol the virtues of their first film-viewing experience and how those influenced their decision to get into the business.

9:05 p.m. The always classy Sandra Bullock enters to present Best Foreign Film. The academy winner jokes about how she is asked to introduce the category in Chinese Mandarin. In fact, she does it in German! The winner of Best Foreign Film is: A Separation. Movie Fanatic could not be more thrilled as the Academy has awarded the film from Iran, a country whose government is rattling its sword at the world, and to see the Oscars extend an olive branch is tremendously moving.

9:09 p.m. Christian Bale enters to award the Best Supporting Actress award after a few jokes at his expense from host Crystal. The Dark Knight Rises star looks great as he presents Octavia Spencer the award for her work on The Help. Spencer wows us with her speech as her The Help co-stars relish in the amazing moment. The crowd gives her a standing ovation that brings the star to tears.

9:19 p.m. A funny bit about the very first focus group discusses The Wizard of Oz. Christopher Guest's movie troupe is an impeccable choice to fill out the "focus group."

9:22 p.m. Bradley Cooper and Tina Fey take the stage to introduce the winner for Best Editing. Your winner is: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. This is the second year in a row for Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall, who won last year for The Social Network.

9:25 p.m. Cooper and Fey stay on stage to award Best Sound Editing. And the Oscar goes to... Hugo!

9:27 p.m. The duo announce the Sound Mixing Award. Guess who won? Hugo! And Movie Fanatic is eight for nine thus far in predictions!

9:34 p.m. Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog make their Oscar night debut as they talk about their first movie experience. Then, they introduce a Cirque du Soleil piece that interprets what it's like to go to the movies. As only Cirque can, the performance is electrifying, riveting and robust with power.

9:39 p.m. Crystal states, "Wow. I pulled a hamstring just watching that." That's why we love him back as host! Then he introduces Gwyneth Paltrow and Robert Downey Jr.

9:40 p.m. Paltrow and Downey take the stage to present the Documentary awards. Downey jokes he is filming a movie called The Presenters. "It will be on Netflix by midnight," Downey said. The winner for Best Documentary is Undefeated in an upset. Stay with Movie Fanatic as we bring you our interview with the filmmakers tomorrow.

9:44 p.m. Chris Rock takes the stage and talks up his passion for animation before awarding the Best Animated Feature award. One of our favorite films of 2011, Rango wins Best Animated Feature!

9:52 p.m. Melissa McCarthy shows why she is so funny in a bit with Crystal as they introduce Emma Stone and Ben Stiller, who are there to present Best Visual Effects.

9:53 p.m. Stiller and Stone show great comic chemistry. And Stone nails it with her wonder-eyed presence as a first time Oscar presenter. And the Best Visual Effects Oscar goes to: Hugo! Now, we have to take a moment to say that we adore Hugo, but yet again Harry Potter gets shut out at the Oscars. That, my friends, is a crime.

9:58 p.m. Melissa Leo, last year's Best Supporting Actress winner, takes the stage to award Best Supporting Actor. The winner is hardly a surprise, yet is still an absolutely wonderful moment as Christopher Plummer wins his first Oscar. The standing ovation from the crowd is so heartwarming. "You're only two years older than me darling. Where have you been all my life?" Plummer stated to his golden statue as he begins his speech.

10:08 p.m. Crystal does a bit where he takes the visuals of celebrities and tells us what they are thinking. It kind of worked, kind of didn't. The Brad Pitt bit worked, Nolte, not so much.

10:11 p.m. On the other hand, his joke about the Academy president "whipping the crowd into a frenzy" works big time.

10:12 p.m. Former Woody Allen stars Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona) and Owen Wilson (Midnight in Paris) come out to present for Best Original Score. And the Oscar goes to: The Artist... as we predicted!

10:18 p.m. Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis enter the Kodak Theatre slamming cymbals at Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Expect anything less from these two funnymen? The pair announce the winner for Best Original Song: Man or Muppet by Bret McKenzie. Don't miss our exclusive interview with winner McKenzie!

10:24 p.m. Angelina Jolie takes the stage as Crystal announces her as "The original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." She presents Best Adapted Screenplay. The winner is The Descendants. The winners immediately make fun of Jolie and her sticking-out-her-leg stage presence. Jolie remains to award Best Original Screenplay. The Oscar goes to... Midnight in Paris.

10:37 p.m. Milla Jovovich reports on her experience hosting the Oscar technical awards luncheon.

10:38 p.m. The Bridesmaids take the stage to announce three awards! Best Live Action Short is first... and the winner is: The Shore. Documentary Short is awarded next to Saving Face. Best Animated Short Film is awarded to The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.

10:50 p.m. A legend walks... Michael Douglas enters to award the Best Director Oscar. As expected, Michel Hazanavicius wins for The Artist.

10:55 p.m. Another legend walks... Meryl Streep takes the stage to talk about the Governor's Awards from November 2011 that honored Dick Smith, Oprah Winfrey and James Earl Jones.

11:03 p.m. Crystal introduces the in memoriam segment that pays tribute to those film business veterans we lost in the past year to a stirring rendition of What a Wonderful World.

11:13 p.m. Last year's Best Actress winner, Natalie Portman, arrives to present Best Actor. And the Oscar goes to: Jean Dujardin! Cheers to the Academy for awarding the Oscar to the Frenchman. We adored that he finished his exuberant speech and did his dance from the film. You had to look carefully or you would have missed it as Oscar producers pulled the camera away.

11:24 p.m. Colin Firth arrives to mark a year since he won last year for The King's Speech. He is there to present Best Actress. The winner is: Meryl Streep! It's hard to call this an upset, but of late the pundits (including us) believed that this was Viola Davis' year. But kudos to you, Ms. Streep! It's been 29 years since our greatest actress received an Oscar and it's about time that that streak of losing to other actresses ends.

11:32 p.m. Tom Cruise hits the stage to present Best Picture. It all comes down to this. The 2012 Oscar winner for Best Picture is The Artist. Although not so much a surprise, it is truly a joy that the Academy Award went to the most deserving.

Stay with Movie Fanatic throughout the evening as we explore the Oscars and who won what and why!

The 84th Academy Awards are in the books and the two films that dominated the nominations came out on top. The Artist earned 10 nods and Hugo scored 11. By the end of the evening, The Artist was the Best Picture and nabbed a total of five Oscars while Hugo delighted in its own right by taking home its own five Oscars.

The Artist was the first silent film to win Best Picture since Wings. The film’s star Jean Dujardin scored the Best Actor award while Meryl Streep finally won her first Oscar in almost three decades.

Without further ado, we present the winners of the 2012 Academy Awards and stay with Movie Fanatic as we present more from this year’s Oscars!

2012 Oscar Winners:

Best Picture
The Artist

Best Actor
Jean Dujardin

Best Actress
Meryl Streep 

Best Supporting Actor
Christopher Plummer

Best Supporting Actress
Octavia Spencer

Best Director
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Descendants

Best Original Screenplay
Midnight in Paris

Best Foreign Film
A Separation

Documentary Feature
Undefeated

Film Editing
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Documentary Short
Saving Face

Best Animated Film
Rango

Best Cinematography
Hugo

Best Art Direction
Hugo

Costume Design
The Artist

Makeup
The Iron Lady

Best Score
The Artist

Best Song
Man or Muppet, The Muppets

Short Film (Animated)
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

Short Film
The Shore

Sound Editing
Hugo

Sound Mixing
Hugo

Visual Effects
Hugo

Gabrielle Union has worked with Tyler Perry before, but not as closely as she did on Good Deeds. Union portrays the writer-director-star’s onscreen fiance and admits to us in our exclusive video interview, her Perry experience has never been so, well… intimate. The star of Bad Boys 2, Bring it On and the upcoming Think Like a Man clearly found her time filming with the prolific Perry one she will never forget.

Gabrielle Union Exclusive Interview

After weeks of discussion about whether Sacha Baron Cohen could behave himself walking the Oscar red carpet as his character The Dictator, we saw how it worked out. Ryan Seacrest was doing his thing in his nice expensive tux on the red carpet of the Academy Awards when next up on his interview list was Cohen in his Dictator best. Check out the video to see what happened next.

The Dictator Spills Ashes on Ryan Seacrest

Soon after the spilling of “Kim John-Il’s” ashes Cohen was promptly removed by security. We’re wondering if the actor was even able to return to the Oscars. Also a question: Was Seacrest in on the joke? When Cohen dropped from the ceiling by a wire at the MTV VMAs a few years back as Bruno and landed half-naked on Eminem’s head, it came out later that the Detroit rapper was in on the gag.

Judging by Seacrest’s response, unless he’s a good actor -- which we doubt -- he was not in on this joke.

Jimmy Kimmel Live had the pleasure of being the “official” post-Oscar show on ABC and the comedian didn’t waste the opportunity. Kimmel got an army of Hollywood stars to be part of his Movie: The Movie trailer and it is a piece of Hollywood perfection. How Kimmel got George Clooney, one of the night's Oscar winners in Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Don Cheadle, Martin Scorsese, Samuel L. Jackson, Charlize Theron and more to participate is a wonder of late night casting. Now just think… if this was a real movie with that cast!

Jimmy Kimmel Live's The Movie: Movie Trailer

Now that the 84th Academy Awards winners have been announced, we wonder: How will the show and the awards themselves rank in the history books?

One of the most memorable moments of the night was when Octavia Spencer got up on the stage and gave one great speech. She was flustered and moved by the standing ovation the crowd gave her, but still managed to fire off one of the night’s best thank you speeches.

As for The Artist winning Best Picture, it wasn’t a surprise, but still provided a great memory. We’re not sure history will be so kind to the Best Picture winner. Movie Fanatic absolutely adored the movie and think it deserved the victory, but perhaps time may prove that Hollywood got swept up in The Artist fever like they did for Slumdog Millionaire.

Jean Dujardin won Best Actor was awesome, although many predicted George Clooney. Movie Fanatic went with the Frenchman and his speech was a delight. That type of exuberance is what the Academy loves to see from a winner. All of the French filmmakers responsible for The Artist provided that in fact. Best Director winner Michel Hazanavicius was equally as thrilled and that is a memory that will forever stay with this Oscar lover.

Meryl Streep scoring the Best Actress Oscar should never be called an upset. But, the tide of “who will win” seemed to be going firmly in Viola Davis’ favor. Judging by her demeanor on the red carpet prior to the show, it appears she felt that way too. As usual, Streep was classy and honestly seemed a bit surprised by finally grasping her first Oscar in 29 years. We think perhaps that is why she was awarded the trophy. Having the most nominations of any actor in history with 17, and only having two wins is a crime. Now, that crime is rectified.

Were there surprises on Oscar night? Well, if you count what happened before the show between Sacha Baron Cohen’s The Dictator and Ryan Seacrest, then yes, but inside the Kodak Theatre, not so much.

Billy Crystal was a great host and showed why he is the man when it comes to hosting the Oscars. But, overall, we were expecting more from the nine-time host than we got last night. He was good in what they gave him, but there had to be more that the host could have done.

Also, the show itself was cooking… to a point. They seemed to be getting the show's notorious length under control by having presenters give away more than one Oscar at a time. We saluted that effort, until it stopped. Then, what seemed to be a show that was heading towards an early conclusion, slowed to an almost halt. Sure, it only went 10 minutes long… but we all know that show could have been 40 minutes shorter.

Meryl Streep finally did it. The best actress of our time won her third Oscar after a 29-year drought. Her thrill with the victory for her work on The Iron Lady was as present onstage at the Kodak Theatre as it was backstage when she met with the press and Movie Fanatic has your inside scoop as to Streep’s emotions and her thoughts about finally winning that elusive Oscar.

“I thought I was so old and jaded, but they call your name, and you just go into sort of a, I don't know, a white light. And it was just thrilling,” Streep said backstage after winning her award. “It was like I was a kid again. I was a kid when I won this, like, 30 years ago. Two of the nominees were not even conceived [laughs].”

Streep managed to capture the British icon without ever meeting her. But the Oscar winner reported going over every piece of news reel she could find in order to craft her winning performance. “I studied her, and I studied, you know, there's so much archival footage. And then the challenge was to imagine her present life, and that was completely an active imagination on Abi Morgan, the writer's part, and my part,” Streep said. The actress admitted that she felt that what resonated about her performance is that, by the time the credits roll on The Iron Lady, the portrait is more of a mirror. “There was a lot of freedom in that, but also responsibility to a real person and to history. It was very satisfying as an actor, as an artist, to make a film that starts out about Margaret Thatcher and ends up being really about all of us.”

Streep was reflective on Oscar day, telling the gathered press that she found a poem hours before her victory that seemed to sum up her feelings. “I read a poem and it had nothing to do with this but it said, ‘It is strange to be here once as it is to return.’ So, that's true. It is strange, the whole thing is strange,” Streep said and smiled.

After seventeen nominations and only two wins, did Streep really think she would never return to holding Oscar gold? “Frankly, I understand Streep fatigue. And it shocks me; it shocked me that it didn't override this tonight. So, I was really, really happy but I don't take anything for granted, that's for sure.”

Before the grand dame of the Oscars exited the press room, she had some advice for younger performers who look to her for inspiration. “Never give up. Many girls around the world live in circumstances that are unimaginably difficult. And it's not, you know, show business is a golf game compared to the way most kids grow up in the world,” Streep said. “I would say never give up.”

The Oscars did its thing February 26 (check out our Academy Award recap) and as joyous as the presenters and winners were onstage, there was a side to them you didn’t see backstage. Movie Fanatic has been given a slew of photos, thank you Academy, from behind the curtain to add some insight into Hollywood’s biggest night. We begin first with two of the biggest stars in the world, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, having a walk backstage before each delves into their Oscar night.


Presenters Jennifer Lopez and Cameron Diaz have a laugh backstage during the live show at the Kodak Theatre.

Tom Cruise is as happy as winner Meryl Streep as the two meet backstage. Cruise was about to step on stage to announce The Artist as Best Picture and took a moment to share in the joy with Best Actress winner Streep.

Jean Dujardin has a word with the woman who presented him with his Oscar, Natalie Portman.

Thomas Langmann, producer of The Artist, is joined by the movie’s director Michel Hazanavicius for a moment. Hazanvicius won Best Director while Langmann scored the Oscar for Best Picture as producer. To say the country of France is thrilled this morning is an understatement.

Oscar show producer Brian Grazer gets a peck on the cheek from award presenter and nominee for Best Original Screenplay Kristen Wiig.

Host Billy Crystal stands backstage, knowing his night is almost over as he witnesses Tom Cruise announce Best Picture.

How could we run photos from Hollywood’s biggest night without one of Uggie the dog from The Artist? You think he’s excited for Best Actor winner Dujardin? You bet!

Vin Diesel must be quite proud of the work he is doing making the film Riddick. The actor has posted numerous photos from the film’s set on his Facebook page and now has published two more.

The above pic shows Diesel resting in character. The actor first played the alien fighter in the film Pitch Black and now is back for his third go-around. The next photo he published features him in action, green screen in the background, as he is hanging by stunt wires.

We have no release date for the film, but will keep you posted. Diesel is joined in the cast by Karl Urban, Katee Sackhoff and Keri Hilson.

Octavia Spencer gave one of the most memorable speeches of this year's Academy Awards when she accepted her Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. The Help star was given a standing ovation by the thousands in attendance and the response clearly moved her to tears. Immediately following her acceptance speech, the actress headed backstage and spoke to the press about her big night. To say she is as modest as she is excited is a gross understatement.

“I want to say fan-effing-tastic. It is humbling,” she proudly stated of how she's feeling. Spencer was quick to thank the people behind The Help, especially those real life individuals who inspired the onscreen characters. “This love affair I've had with The Help -- I am a benefactor of all of the riches that the real life Minnys, Aibileens, Constantines, Skeeters and Celias, that they basically repeated. I'm very humble because I get to stand here and accept this award and I haven't really done anything.”

Spencer then delved deeper into how her castmates helped her not only hone her performance, but create an environment that was rich with inspiration. “It's very rare that you have the type of ensemble that we had. You don't get all the Academy Award nominees/winners and Cecily Tyson, Mary Steenburgen, Sissy Spacek and Viola Davis coming together to do a project,” she said. “Then you have the collaboration of Academy Award nominees behind the scenes. We just left our egos at the door and worked together as one beautiful unit from Emma, Viola, Bryce, Allison Janney. I mean, it was an award-winning cast. To be a part of that and to just sort of dissolve into the world that we were representing is something that we're supposed to do as actors, but it was rare that we did it without judgment with each other.”

In her speech, the newly-minted Oscar winner thanked Steven Spielberg. Backstage, she further explained why. “Steven Spielberg is a luminary. And as far as I can remember in filmmaking he, in every decade of my life, has been creating brilliance. He has this little studio called DreamWorks that could have put any zaftig actress with acting chops in my role, but he allowed my dear friend, Tate Taylor, to cast me pretty much unknown,” Spencer said. “That's the sign of a true filmmaker to allow a true filmmaker to do what he does. So he changed my professional life, and getting the opportunity to play this role changed life personally as well.”

Most Oscar winners have doors fly open for them after a victory. Spencer is no different, but she is -- as she always was prior to winning -- willing to just play parts, even in the background. She also wants to go behind the camera to provide opportunities to actors and actresses like the ones she has had. “I want to be an activist. I want to be proactive in bringing about work for men, women, boys, girls, everybody who is good at what they do and deserve a shot at it,” Spencer said. “I think my role post-Oscar is I want to have a presence both behind the scenes and in front of the camera. I'll be the jack of all trades and hopefully decent at one of them.”

Where the G.I. Joe: Retaliation Super Bowl trailer took its inspiration from Jay-Z, it appears the latest teaser is driven by the White Stripes. The distorted music that begins about halfway through the 30-second spot is clearly Seven Nation Army. Movie Fanatic has always thought that track would be perfect in an action film. Guess someone listened!

GI Joe Retaliatiion Trailer 3

The film arrives June 29 and features Dwayne Johnson and Bruce Willis, plus Channing Tatum reprising his role from the first film.

After we featured an army of new stills from The Hunger Games last week, a new one has arrived today. The shot is of Donald Sutherland, who could not have been more perfectly cast as President Snow.

The film arrives March 23 and Movie Fanatic is seeing it this weekend and will be talking to the entire cast March 3. Stay with us as we bring you inside the most anticipated movie of the spring.

Not only do Titanic fanatics have a chance to witness the marvel of the movie on the big screen in 3D with the early April 3 screening, but they will also walk away with a limited edition movie pack. The one-night-only screenings will take place at RealD 3D theaters at 6:30 p.m.

Those who are thrilled about the swag can expect this from their Titanic 3D movie pack:

∙     One ticket to the movie sneak preview
∙     A collectors edition pair of Titanic RealD 3D glasses
∙     A limited-edition Titanic movie art lithograph

The prize packs contain a caveat, the proverbial “while supplies last.” So, get there early if you want to check out the film and get the goods.

While you’re in the Titanic mood, check out the latest Titanic 3D trailer. The film arrives nationally April 10. It currently sits at number two on the all-time box office movie list. Will the re-release bump it up past Avatar?

As Christopher Plummer walked up to the Kodak Theatre stage to accept his Best Supporting Actor Oscar, the announcer hailed him as the oldest Academy Award winner in history. Not so, said the star of Beginners while talking to the movie press. “I don't believe that for a second,” Plummer said. “I think that Charlie Chaplin, even though it was an honorary Oscar, wasn't he 83? I mean, an honorary Oscar after all is an Oscar, we hope. But it feels pretty good anyway.”

Plummer has been nominated two times prior, and although the win is nice, the actor claims it is not going to define him -- not a surprising sentiment given the actor’s incredibly esteemed career. “It is a le creme on top, and it's lovely to be accepted,” Plummer said. “Beyond the pleasure of working in front of a live audience, particularly, it's a general acceptance of your work. It's thrilling, and I don't pretend not to pooh-pooh awards, although there's so many of them, I can't keep up. I mean, they're inventing a new one every day!”

When Plummer accepted his award onstage, he thanked his wife for “saving me every day.” Backstage, he further explained that, and his thoughts may surprise the millions who know him as the straight-laced Captain von Trapp. “I'm a naughty boy. I've been bad all my life, and she always puts me in line. I think it's great what she's done,” Plummer said. “It's extraordinary.”

Although he has inspired many in his career, the Oscar win for Beginners should shine a light on his career for a new generation of actors. When it comes to those who inspired him, knowing the actor is Canadian, his answer should not be too surprising. “In the French cinema we had when I grew up, I saw a lot of French films, because I lived in Quebec. From France, there were great actors like Pierre Brasseur, Lewis Gilbert and people who are just extraordinary stage actors,” Plummer recalled. “The great classical actors inspired me when I was quite young. Then, later, the new school of Marlon Brando. I lived through all of those various changes, and they all made their mark upon me.” 

Now that he has an Oscar in hand, is Plummer slowing down at the age of 82? Hardly. “This is sort of a renewal. It's not a beginning exactly, but it has recharged me and I hope I can do it for another ten years at least,” Plummer said. “I'm going to drop dead wherever I am, on stage or on the set. We don't retire in our profession, thank God.”

Witnessing the first few trailers for Prometheus, our knowledgeable readers noticed a common thread with that film and Alien. Considering Prometheus is Scott’s first foray into space for decades, we can see how viewers can make the parallel. The director is chiming in on the story now in a recently released statement.

Besides witnessing the obvious in the trailers, when his latest film was in pre-production, it was being called a prequel to Alien. Then, it became a “companion piece.” So, where does the truth lie?

“When the first Alien movie and Blade Runner were made, I thought that in the near future the world will be owned by large companies. This is why we have the Tyrell Corporation in Blade Runner, and Weyland-Yutani in Alien. They sent the Nostromo spaceship,” Scott said in his statement.

“The Prometheus is owned by an entrepreneur called Peter Weyland, and is played by Guy Pearce. That's the connection between the two films, and nothing more. Prometheus is a new film, a new world, and is full of new ideas. And of course new monsters as well."

Well, there you have it. Or do we? Stay tuned…

Now that Billy Crystal has finished his job of hosting the Oscars and all the Academy Award winners have been announced, it’s not too early to look to 2013. Since the reviews for Crystal were lukewarm at best (as we talk about in our Oscar wrap-up), we were brainstorming to think about who might be a good fit to host Hollywood’s biggest night next year.

We think Crystal did an average job, and were honestly super excited when it was announced that it was going to be Eddie Murphy before he dropped out. Honestly, it is doubtful they could get Murphy next year after this year's mess.

When we had our exclusive interview with Crystal’s head writer for the Oscars, she stressed that the host should be a comedian so they can have the presence of mind to move with the punches in the most hilarious of ways. We’re not so sure that has to be the case as the Steve Martin-Alec Baldwin tandem did quite well and let’s not forget what fun Hugh Jackman had as host.

So, tell us: Who should host the Oscars in 2013?

The documentary filmmakers behind Undefeated can now add Oscar winner to their resume. The duo of Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin shocked the world with their upset victory on Oscar night. “Oh, this actually happened. This is real,” Lindsay said of the Oscar experience. “I kept thinking that somebody was going to say, ‘Oh, we screwed up.’”

Martin concurred that the process towards Oscar winner has been extremely surreal -- a run towards Oscar gold that began years ago. “We got picked up by the Weinstein Company last March at South by Southwest, and that was like, ‘We’ve done it! That’s amazing! Other people will actually see this movie, aside from ourselves,'" Martin said. “Then, it made the Oscar short list and I was like, ‘Oh, I just pissed my pants! That’s crazy!’”

Lindsay added that this is where they want to be, but still it's hard to wrap their minds around it. “That was the life goal,” he said. “I still couldn’t believe that happened.”

The pair are obviously passionate about their story of the Manassas High School football team in North Memphis and their volunteer coach who changed lives with his passion. Coach Bill Courtney took a team that had never been to the playoffs in the school’s 100-year history (many years they didn’t even win a game) and helped them achieve a playoff berth with an astounding record of eight wins and one loss.
 
Although their accolades have come fast and furious of late, the filmmaking duo credits it all to the community that trusted them to come in with cameras rolling and capture a momentous moment in time. “For us, to get nominated is amazing, but it’s way more a testament to the people that we made the film about. The fact that the players on the team and Bill and the people in the community trusted us, in the way that they did, to give us the emotional candor that we were able to capture in the film, we wouldn’t have a film without that,” Lindsay said.

Lindsay and Martin arrived in a city that they knew did not want to be portrayed as it had on the nightly news. “We felt that, at least in North Memphis and communities similar to that, more times than not, when there’s a media presence there, they want to do a sensationalized piece about how violent the neighborhood is, or something like that. We came in, as an outside entity, saying, “We want to tell your story.” So, in order to gain that trust, we had to commit to that and show up, every single day. We had to earn their trust, and then put ourselves in a position to actually capture things that unfolded in front of the camera, so we didn’t have to have a talking head tell you anecdotal things that happened in the past,” Martin added.

When it came to covering a subject for a documentary, Movie Fanatic wondered how much the film would be different if what happened on the field was not so Undefeated. “If they had lost every game, we would have made a movie about a team losing every game. The story reveals itself to you,” Lindsay said. “The story tells us what it’s going to be. This is what happened. We actually didn’t want to make a sports film, going into it. Granted, we were going through a football lens, but we thought maybe it would veer into something more about education. But, after a few weeks, we couldn’t deny that the drama was happening on the field and revolved around the team. That was the story that was telling us it was going to be.”
 
Martin feels strongly that the reason the film has resonated has nothing to do with its athletic subject matter. “Even though it’s a ‘sports film,’ the themes that are explored in the film are much more universal. You could replace football with chess, painting or soccer,” he said. “Generally speaking, the way we work is that the themes will present themselves to us, and then we’ll decide what we really want to explore within the narrative while we’re shaping the film, and we just stick to that. In this case, it was fatherhood, resilience, and taking advantage of opportunity or a lack thereof.”

Undefeated Trailer

The duo had to walk a tightrope and made that fact clear to their subjects from the beginning of filming. “I remember having a long conversation with Bill, when we barely even knew him, and I was like, “Look, by the end of this, we probably will be friends. We will become very close with each other and this will be a very intense experience, and then we’re going to leave and our lives will go on.” That’s a really strange thing, so you try to talk to people about it beforehand, so they’re aware of that and they’re comfortable with the idea of that,” Lindsay said. “But, I think the approach of how close you get is seen on screen. If you’re really surgical about it and just hands-off and it’s almost sterile, I think that shows on screen. When you get really close with your subjects, and sometimes too close, where you can tell that somebody is keeping a moment in or they’re editing themselves, you can see their relationship in a way that’s not good. I think that gets revealed on screen. It’s the level of intimacy you have to watch, so that it can play out on screen successfully.”

“This is not objective journalism. Once we noticed how emotionally candid people were with us, and we captured all that material, we had an emotional experience, over the course of making it, and it was about imparting that experience to a greater audience. If we did that through what we felt was emotionally what we went through, over the course of making the film, then that was a success to us,” Martin added.

In the end, Martin feels that their Oscar-winning film is an opportunity to celebrate the possible. “But it also recognizes that the community where these kids grow up, some of the decisions they make, at that moment in time and at that point in their life, could have dire consequences and a greater ripple effect."