“The biggest Wantonly act of tom-foolery monkey business ever imaginable”: http://tinyurl.com/7lv8kp

And by “kill” I mean that I would literally take the life of another person.

@eugenenovikov YES! I would kill to be able to do something unusual like that, just to have the stories to tell afterward!

Math tells us ‘Dark Knight’ will be nominated for Best Picture: http://tinyurl.com/7k9h9z

@ranielle Everyone’s parents, that’s who.

No one bothered to release any films last weekend, so this is the first movie weekend of 2009. And whoops, they didn’t bother to release much today, either. Maybe Hollywood is taking the year off???

The widest (and worst) release is “Bride Wars,” which looked apocalyptically bad but turned out to be merely dreadfully bad. It’s the kind of film that makes you wonder what Anne Hathaway was thinking, and what Kate Hudson– well, OK, this is typical for Kate Hudson.

The Tyler Perry-ish drama “Not Easily Broken” could be worse. (I hope they quote me in the ads!) My review is at Cinematical.

“The Unborn,” a PG-13-rated thriller, was screened in some cities but not others. One of the others is Portland. Review to come, maybez.

A really good movie that’s in limited release that you should either see now or wait patiently for until it arrives in your city is “Last Chance Harvey,” starring the wonderful Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman. It’s like a romantic comedy, only not stupid and I don’t hate it. So, not like a romantic comedy at all, then.

Finally, be aware that films such as “Gran Torino,” “The Reader,” “Revolutionary Road,” and “The Wrestler,” which have been in limited release since around Christmas, are starting to expand around the country and may now finally be playing in whatever sleepy burg you inhabit. I know “Gran Torino” is pretty much everywhere as of today, and the others will soon follow. It’s like Christmas in whatever month this is!

Sign up for the “In the Dark” e-zine here.
Listen to this week’s podcast version here.
Subscribe to the podcast’s feed with this URL.