Contributor: Paul Asay

Sometimes, nice girls do finish first. Country charmer Taylor Swift’s new album, Speak Now, sold more than 1 million albums in its first week, making it the year’s biggest debut by far (second goes to Eminem’s Recovery, which sold 741,000) and nearly b …

The Russian mafia are festooned with telltale tattoos in this new David Cronenberg nightmare. ‘Every sin leaves a mark,’ reads the tagline. So does every movie.

Since its inception way back in 2004, the Saw franchise has sliced and diced its way to nearly $400 million in domestic box office receipts. But lately, the films’ performances have been, how shall we say, dull? Granted, Saw 3D’s opening take this week …

I’ve been in mourning the last couple of days. I’ve hung my 3-D glasses at half staff and considered wrapping my cubicle in black creché. Paul the Octopus is dead. Paul, as you may recall, earned a measure of fame by becoming the world’s most prominent …

Never mind that Starkiller died at the end of the first game: He must once again save the galaxy from Darth Vader and his evil empire. Too bad the whole exercise feels a little … forced.

The local cineplex was a frightening place this weekend in a lot of respects, with Paranormal Activity 2 screaming its way to a $41.5 million take and scaring off all other comers. Last week’s champ, Jacka– 3D, a sort of horror film in its own right, …

I don’t like to brag, but there’s a chance I might be a “10.” On the iPhone’s new “Ugly Meter” app, that is. The app—already downloaded 20,000 times—encourages users to take photos of themselves with their handy iPhone cameras, have the app check out t …

Score one for the icky. Jacka– 3D, a cinematic collection of bizarre, dangerous and often really, really disgusting stunts, catapulted to the top of the box office like a Porta Potty slingshot this weekend, cresting at an estimated $50 million and bec …

Clint Eastwood serves up a compelling—but ultimately confusing—campfire story about three ghosts, still very much alive, searching for the key to the afterlife.

Johnny Knoxville and his comedically sadistic and masochistic crew perform a series of dangerous, disgusting and demeaning stunts for the paying audience’s pleasure. In 3-D.

Toy Story 3 is coming out on DVD next month, and I, for one, am not looking forward to it. Oh, I’ve heard it’s a fantastic film. Some folks are saying it might not just get nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award, but perhaps win the thing. I’m sure …

If Secretariat, the horse, was still alive today, and if the thoroughbred received a visitor who happened to have boxofficemojo.com bookmarked on his laptop, the visitor might well turn to the horse and say, “Why the long Facebook?” To which Secretaria …

With the success of MTV’s Jersey Shore, it was only a matter of time before reality show makers scoped out the other 49 states to determine what sort of regionally stereotypic, debauched twentysomethings might be exploited for a reality show. Alas, it …

Longtime frienemies Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel suddenly find themselves with child when their best friends die in a car crash—leaving a 1-year-old girl to their charge.

A horse is a horse, of course, of course. Unless the horse is the famous Secretariat, perhaps the greatest racehorse ever. We know he wins in the end. Does his movie?