Fans of old school, VHS-era video labels such a Wizard, Lightning, and Vestron rejoice, for the foul-minded t-shirt specialists over at Rotten Cotton have recently released a killer collection of short-sleeved torso huggers featuring the logos of these three beloved labels and many more.

These t-shirts will no doubt bring back memories of the times when VHS and Beta were duking it out to become the dominant force on the home video market, and bulky clamshell cases lined the shelves of your local mom and pop video store - promising endless evenings of guilty-pleasure viewing.

Click the pic below for a link to the logo shirt section of the website.
(Warning: While this particular page contains nothing particularly objectionable, the rest of the site is decidedly NSFW and seems tailor made to offend, well… just about everyone.)

Seeing as this is the first weekend after Thanksgiving, there is sure to be a big percentage drop for almost every film already in the top 10, and family films may take an even bigger hit. That said, little could keep Enchanted from claiming the top spot yet again. The well-marketed This Christmas should hold on to much of its audience. Awake, the weekend’s only new release, should do no better than The Mist did last weekend. And it looks likely that No Country for Old Men will continue to build on its impressive expansion last weekend.

How the top 5 will look on Monday:
Enchanted: 17 Million
This Christmas: 9 Million
Awake: 8 Million
Beowulf: 7 Million
No Country for Old Men: 6 Million

In case you have yet to reach Maximum Media Saturation on brilliant young Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody, may we present a brief speculative bio on — who else — Diablo Cody!

Not only is Diablo Cody an “alluring person and writer” with an IQ of over 140 (according to certain internet movie message boards), but rumor has it Diablo Cody is also working on a cure for cancer, has a fool-proof plan for peace in the Middle East, and has developed a clean-burning alternative fuel source that will stop global warming and cost pennies a gallon. What’s more, Diablo Cody has also designed a series of revolutionary jet packs that will change the way mankind travels, as well as a brilliant new rocket propulsion system that will get us to Mars by 2010. Scientists who have studied Diablo Cody’s insanely complex DNA strands have recently revealed that her unique genetic structure could prove the key to opening parallel dimensions that, to this point in history, no one even knew existed.

Of course Diablo Cody is thought to be a shoo-in for the Best Screenplay Oscar, but why stop there? Some folks are saying that Diablo Cody is also a front-runner for a Nobel Peace prize, and could very well be the dark horse candidate for the 2008 presidential elections…

Vote Diablo Cody!

Addendum - 12.12.7: Lest anyone mistake this playful jab at the hype machine as any sort of personal attack on Diablo Cody, I’d like to add that having now seen Juno twice, the buzz over this bold new voice is worth every ounce of the praise that has been heaped upon it; it’s heartfelt, remarkably original, and absolutely hilarious. There’s no question that it will make my year-end list in multiple categories (including, of course, Best Screenplay), and having just interviewed Mrs. Cody as well as Juno director Jason Reitman, I can testify that she is every bit as charming and personable as one might expect after seeing the film or reading her memoirs. Keep an eye on this blog for the full interview later next week, and in the meantime why not dash out to your local bookstore and pick up a copy of Candy Girl for yourself – it’s a wildly entertaining read, and a fine introduction the author’s engaging and inimitable writing style.

Few endings in recent memory have stirred quite as many gut reactions as the one in No Country for Old Men, Joel and Ethan Cohen’s brilliant meditation on… well, what were they getting at exactly? While many critics are keen to spout their own educated opinions on the matter, the fact remains that there might not even be an answer for this controversial lightning rod of a closer. And though this reviewer is more than happy to continue to ponder the film’s final act, the real joy is to see the great film debate renewed once again. Case in point, the comment board on Jeffrey Wells’ recent Hollywood Elsewhere post, where parties on all sides weigh in with their highly opinionated thoughts on the matter. It goes without saying that those who haven’t seen the movie should sway away from the discussion, but for those that have, it’s become a fascinating forum for film fans on both sides of the argument to share their thoughts. Readers looking to delve further into the rabbit hole best check out Premiere’s thoughts on the matter, as it includes a bit more novel-to-screen comparisons as well as a conclusion that should aggravate confused moviegoers even more. To this, I say – what a great time to be a movie lover!

While the cineplexes are beginning to fill with some of the year’s better films, it’s pretty slim pickings on home video this week. Here are some highlights of what’s hitting stores today:

Bratz: Yes, it was universally panned and tanked at the box-office, but at least they didn’t try to give the live-action versions of the characters those giant heads.

Waitress: If you missed the late Adrienne Shelly’s final film in theaters, now’s your chance to catch one of the year’s best-reviewed romantic comedies.

Hot Rod: To call it one of the best SNL-fueled movies in years isn’t saying much, but Andy Samberg’s admittedly uneven starring debut is funny more often than it isn’t. Think of it as a more coherent Freddy Got Fingered. I’ll let you decide if that’s good or bad.

I Know Who Killed Me: Don’t listen to the reviews. This erotic thriller starring Lindsay Lohan is a bad-good masterpiece on par with Showgirls and The Butterfly Effect.

Who’s Your Caddy?: This movie got a wide theatrical release. You’re likely laughing more now than you will throughout all of Who’s Your Caddy’s 93 minutes.

Also out today: Skinwalkers, Mr. Bean’s Holiday, and Paprika.

December 25th, 2007 will witness the limited release of what is certainly one of the most unusual films to hit American cinemas this year. As co-directed by Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi, and issued on this side of the Atlantic by Sony Pictures Classics, Persepolis is a French/U.S./Iranian co-production, animated and in black-and-white, on the theme of political dissidence. If that alone doesn’t indicate the film’s intended audience, let me be clearer: we’ve seen a number of non-anime films in the past several years that break the mold on the western stereotype of “animation designed predominantly for children” - from the whimsical avant-garde irreverence of Sylvain Chomet’s The Triplets of Belleville (2003), to the rotoscoping of Richard Linklater’s A Scanner Darkly (2006) - but this one, above all others, will almost certainly force incredulous adult audiences into a new mindset regarding non-live action material. (Not that Persepolis stands any chance of a mainstream release - it looks far too idiosyncratic for that).

As adapted from Satrapi’s popular autobiographical graphic novel, the film dramatizes the tale of a young Iranian girl persecuted for vocalizing her iconoclastic beliefs during the Iranian revolution. The simplistic quality of the animation gives it a stark, foreboding quality and a lyrical asceticism that makes the trailer supremely haunting.

Now comes the sticky part. Evidently two versions of this film exist - an original French-language version sporting the vocal talents of such European superstars as Catherine Deneuve and Danielle Darrieux (the grand dame of French Cinema, who just celebrated her 90th birthday), and a re-looped version with the said actresses reprising their roles in English, plus the added voices of Sean Penn, Iggy Pop and Gena Rowlands. It remains to be seen if Sony will release two versions in the U.S., one with a French language audio track and English subtitles, but frankly, I’m unsure what the point is of avoiding subtitles. After all, it isn’t as if the crowd that would frequent this film is unaccustomed to reading subtitles, and the use of foreign language looks as if it may add to the film’s effect by imbuing it with an alien quality.

At least Sony had the wisdom and intelligence to pick this up - and because it constitutes France’s official selection for the Best Foreign Film Oscar in 2008, it may clock in as one of the rare animated contenders for that Oscar in the history of the Academy.

The nominations for the independent spirit awards have been announced. Juno, I’m Not There, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and Paranoid Park are among the films garnering multiple nods.

Expect Cate Blanchett to win Supporting Actress, Diablo Cody to take home the debut screenplay award, and a screenwriting win for the greatly missed Adrienne Shelly.

Jessica Alba claims she has been asked to star in a Broadway revival of David Mamet’s scathing Hollywood satire Speed the Plow. One assumes she is taking this job in order to salvage her dismal film career get back to her roots in the theater. She will play the part Madonna portrayed in the original production; by that logic, Alba is only a few years away from her own remake of Swept Away directed by Cash Warren.

Really, could it be any worse?…