One actor who helped pave the way for the change in outlook and acceptance of the horror genre was Lon (Alonso) Chaney, Sr., known as “the man of a thousand faces” because of his transformative, grotesque makeup and acting genius as a pantomime artist. He appeared in numerous silent horror films beginning in 1913 at Universal Studios. He was soon to become the first American horror-film star and Hollywood’s first great character actor. His first grotesque character role as a fake cripple (a contorted figure named the Frog), his breakthrough role, was in The Miracle Man (1919) (a film that only partially survives). Chaney’s films, collaborating with director Tod Browning on ten feature films over a decade, included these examples of lurid melodrama (and horror) and crime:
* Universal’s The Wicked Darling (1919) – Chaney’s first film partnering with Tod Browning, portraying a thief named Stoop Connors
* Universal’s Outside the Law (1920) – a crime drama with Chaney in a dual supporting role as Black Mike Sylva and Ah Wing
* MGM’s The Unholy Three (1925) – with Chaney as a criminal ventriloquist named Professor Echo; it was later remade by MGM in 1930 by director Jack Conway (again with Chaney) – it was Chaney’s first and only talkie before he died of throat cancer
* MGM’s The Blackbird (1926) – Chaney portrayed the dual roles of Dan ‘The Blackbird’ and The Bishop
* MGM’s The Road to Mandalay (1926) – Chaney took the role of Singapore Joe
* MGM’s London After Midnight (1927) – the first Hollywood vampire film (a lost film) in which Chaney starred as a sunken and dark-eyed vampirish character
* MGM’s The Unknown (1927) – Chaney portrayed Alonzo the Armless Knife-thrower, a circus performer, with an obsession for a carnival girl (Joan Crawford in an early role) in its tale of a love-triangle
* MGM’s West of Zanzibar (1928) – Chaney was cast as English magician named Phroso, now crippled and bald-headed and known as ‘Dead-Legs’ in “A Story of Love and Revenge in African Jungles!”
* MGM’s The Big City (1928), a lost film
* MGM’s Where East is East (1929) – the last collaboration between Browning and Chaney (a film that only partially survives); Chaney starred as Indochinese animal trapper “Tiger” Haynes

Shrek and Fiona’s (Mike Myers and Cameron Diaz, respectively) fairy-tale wedding has gone off without a hitch, yet just as the beaming newlyweds prepare to enjoy their blissful “happily ever after,” the sudden death of King Harold (John Cleese) finds everyone’s favorite ornery ogre being reluctantly fitted for the royal crown.
Troubled to learn that not only will he be compelled to rule Far Far Away, but that he and Fiona are also expecting a little ogre, Shrek determines to track down his new bride’s rebellious cousin, Artie (Justin Timberlake) — the one true heir to the throne — in order to focus on fatherhood without the added distraction of having to preside over the kingdom. As Shrek sets out with faithful companions Donkey (Eddie Murphy) and Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) to locate the medieval high-school slacker and bring him back to become the reigning sovereign of Far Far Away, handsome snake Prince Charming (Rupert Everett) slithers back to the castle in the company of the dreaded Captain Hook (Ian McShane) to stage a diabolically timed coup and assume control of the throne.
Now, as Shrek, Donkey, and Puss in Boots do their best to wrangle up the feisty Artie, Fiona must enlist the aid of fighting princesses Snow White (Amy Poehler), Sleeping Beauty (Cheri Oteri), Rapunzel (Maya Rudolph), and Cinderella (Amy Sedaris) to barricade the castle and fend off Prince Charming’s invading army of fairy-tale villains until her beloved husband can return with the cavalry to save the day.

Throughout history, tales of chivalry have burnished the legends of brave, handsome knights who rescue fair damsels, slay dragons and conquer evil. But behind many a hero is a good-for-nothing younger brother trying just to stay out of the way of those dragons, evil and trouble in general. Danny McBride and James Franco team up for an epic comedy adventure set in a fantastical world–Your Highness. As two princes on a daring mission to save their land, they must rescue the heir apparent’s fiancée before their kingdom is destroyed. Thadeous (McBride) has spent his life watching his perfect older brother Fabious (Franco) embark upon valiant journeys and win the hearts of his people. Tired of being passed over for adventure, adoration and the throne, he’s settled for a life of wizard’s weed, hard booze and easy maidens.
Your Highness makes no bones about its low-brow nature or the fact it’s often trying to get laughs out of the incongruity of swearing (a lot) in a medieval fantasy setting, which works.
The cast seem to relish the absurdity, hamming it up to great effect, particularly Franco as the Prince Valiant type and Portman as the slightly unhinged warrior maiden Isabel.
There’s no scrimping on the effects, sets or the action either, so the movie moves along nicely in between the sex gags and profanity, even though it runs out of steam towards the end.
This movie is not aspiring to greatness, nor does it have broad appeal – there’s only a limited audience for this and that audience thinks that a) Danny McBride is hilarious, b) swearing a lot is hilarious, c) jokes about masturbation and genitalia are often hilarious.
I’m going to have to include myself in that group because I found Your Highness laugh-out-loud funny. Just don’t expect too much from it and remember to switch off your brain.

When decorated soldier Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) wakes up in the body of an unknown man, he discovers he’s part of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train. In an assignment unlike any he’s ever known, he learns he’s part of a government experiment called the Source Code, a program that enables him to cross over into another man’s identity in the last 8 minutes of his life. With a second, much larger target threatening to kill millions in downtown Chicago, Colter re-lives the incident over and over again, gathering clues each time, until he can solve the mystery of who is behind the bombs and prevent the next attack.
A beautifully made, suspenseful techno-thriller about a dead man who tries to save Chicago from nuclear destruction. Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal), an Army pilot who went down with his Black Hawk in Afghanistan, has his life extended by means of “source code” (don’t even dream of asking), and, for exactly eight minutes at a time, he’s sent back, again and again, to a commuter train that’s heading for Chicago with a terrorist aboard. How, you may ask, is it possible that this movie isn’t ridiculous? It isn’t ridiculous because everything that happens on the train is utterly realistic. The movie is a formally disciplined piece of work, a triumph of movie syntax, made with a sense of rhythm and pace, and Gyllenhaal, who is always good at conveying anxiety, gives Stevens’s desperation a comic edge—he reminds us that the situation that the character finds himself in is strange beyond belief, and his amusement as an actor includes us in the fun. With Michelle Monaghan, as a fellow-commuter, and Vera Farmiga and Jeffrey Wright, as Stevens’s military handlers. Very ably directed by Duncan Jones; Ben Ripley, obviously drawing on Philip K. Dick’s stories and on “Groundhog Day,” wrote the screenplay

A pitiable remake of the sloshed “classic” from 1981. As the innocently inebriated millionaire playboy, Russell Brand, who was magnetically funny as a preening, prancing Brit rock star in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “Get Him to the Greek,” has been reduced to an elongated baby with a high, timid voice and flaring nostrils. Brand’s chest hair is gone, and his virile brazenness and wit along with it. Nothing works any better—for long stretches, the movie produces not so much as a titter. With Helen Mirren, as Arthur’s nanny (the old John Gielgud role), the likable Jennifer Garner, as a calculating bitch who wants to marry Arthur’s money, and the mumblecore queen Greta Gerwig (saddled with terrible lines), as the sensible poor girl who wants to straighten him out. Directed by Jason Winer. Peter Baynham adapted Steve Gordon’s old story.

In this fresh new look at a classic story, Russell Brand reinvents the role of loveable billionaire Arthur Bach, an irresponsible charmer who has always relied on two things to get by: his limitless fortune and the good sense of his lifelong nanny and best friend Hobson (Helen Mirren), to keep him out of trouble. Kind-hearted, fun-loving, and utterly without purpose, Arthur spends every day in the heedless pursuit of amusement. But when his unpredictable public image threatens the staid reputation of the family foundation, Bach Worldwide, he is given an ultimatum: marry the beautiful but decidedly unlovable Susan Johnson (Jennifer Garner), an ambitious corporate exec who can keep him in line, or say goodbye to his billion-dollar inheritance and the only way of life he knows. It’s a deal Arthur would be inclined to take…if he hadn’t just fallen for Naomi (Greta Gerwig), a New York City tour guide who shares his idealism and spontaneity. The independent Naomi sees Arthur not only for who he is, but for who he could be, and finally gives him a reason to take charge of his own life. All he needs to do is stand up for what he wants. But at what cost? With some unconventional help from Hobson–the one person who always believed he could do anything–Arthur will take the most expensive risk of his life and learn what it means to become a man.

This spring, Universal Pictures and producer Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, The 40-Year-Old Virgin) invite you to experience Bridesmaids. Kristen Wiig leads the cast as Annie, a maid of honor whose life unravels as she leads her best friend, Lillian (Maya Rudolph), and a group of colorful bridesmaids (Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy, Wendi McLendon-Covey and Ellie Kemper) on a wild ride down the road to matrimony. Annie’s life is a mess. But when she finds out her lifetime best friend is engaged, she simply must serve as Lillian’s maid of honor. Though lovelorn and broke, Annie bluffs her way through the expensive and bizarre rituals. With one chance to get it perfect, she’ll show Lillian and her bridesmaids just how far you’ll go for someone you love.
In this new comedy, Kristen Wiig, a “Saturday Night Live” regular since 2005, gives a largely realistic performance as a woman without any ego at all—Annie, an unhappy single woman living in Milwaukee, whose baking business has failed and who clings to the bed of a handsome rich lout (Jon Hamm, grinning in deliciously fatuous self-satisfaction). As her best friend (Maya Rudolph) makes preparations to get married, Annie’s life spirals downward into an out-and-out funk. Playing quietly, Wiig is a decent and likable actress, but, for fans of her wild side, she seems diminished. We wait for her to break out. Casting the bridal party, the director, Paul Feig, has gathered a group of practiced TV performers. The funniest of the lot is the hefty Melissa McCarthy, a deadpan lewd comic, who is proud of her weight and alarmingly active in throwing herself at people. And Wiig, at last, emerges: she has some memorable tantrums and an inspired drunk scene on an airplane. Skinny as she is, she suddenly becomes a mass of seething flesh, as sinuous as a snake. With Rose Byrne, as a stuck-up rich lady and the burly Irish actor Chris O’Dowd, who is implausibly but pleasingly gentle and lilting as a Wisconsin highway patrolman. The movie is uneven and lurching, but it provides many laughs. Written by Wiig and Annie Mumolo.