If you follow me or any other movie-oriented people on Twitter, you probably know that the fine movie blog Cinematical was essentially shut down this week, with the last of the editors quitting and nearly all of the writers (including me) being dismissed. This is bad news for the online movie world, and it’s been encouraging to see the many, many R.I.P. tweets going out all week.

I’m lucky in that I have other freelancing teats from which to suckle, most importantly Film.com. Many of the other Cinematical folks were earning more of their livelihoods from Cinematical than I was and are thus further up a creek now than I am. I hope they’re able to find other gigs soon.

I’ll be writing more about what happened, and why, and who deserves the blame (spoiler alert: Arianna Huffington) in the next couple days.

In the meantime, here’s the roundup of this week’s reviews and such:

“Arthur” (review at Film.com): B-

“Your Highness”: D

“Hanna”: B

“Soul Surfer” had a screening, but it was the same time as “Arthur.” It’s about a surfer who gets her arm bitten off by a shark, though, so that’s cool.

At Film.com, I spotlighted 10 summer movies I’m looking forward to that don’t have superheroes in them; “What’s the Big Deal?” addressed “Metropolis”; and “Eric’s Bad Movies” took a can of Raid to “Empire of the Ants.”

And for some reason you can also hear me talk a lot this week, if you want to. I joined Jeremy Kirk and Tim Buel for the “Golden Briefcase” podcast. Then Chase Whale interviewed me for his “Whale of a Writer” series (GET IT?? He’s saying I’m fat). Then, after the Cinematical thing went down, I was invited to join Scott Weinberg and Erik Davis to discuss it on “Reject Radio,” hosted by “Cole Abaius.” Part of that involved participating in a game show, which was very exciting for me. (Listener advisories: there’s some cussin’ in the first one, none in the second one, a tiny bit in the third one.)

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Listen to “Movie B.S. with Bayer and Snider,” a weekly Internet radio show featuring Jeff Bayer and Eric D. Snider, at Cascadia.fm. It’s live at 11 a.m. (Pacific) every Friday, then downloadable as a podcast. Ignore the iTunes “explicit” tag; we always keep it PG.

One of the secrets from my past is that I recorded two CDs of live comedy. Mostly it’s me playing the piano and singing, though there is also some talking. (I am better at talking than singing.) “Will Make Jokes for Food” came out in 2003, with the follow-up, “Monkeys and Pirates Are Funny,” in 2006. Some of the songs were written during that time, but a lot of them were much older, having been written for the Garrens Comedy Troupe at BYU between 1993 and 2001.

The CDs were basically self-released, and I sold them through my website and when I would do live shows, which wasn’t very often. Now they’re out of print, so I have uploaded many of the songs to iLike.com, where you can listen to them or download them. For free, even!

Here’s my iLike page. I’ve divided the songs not by album but by category, “General Merriment” and “Merriment Specific to Utah and/or Mormon Culture.” (The Mormons may be interested to know that included in that batch is a brand-new updated version of “The General Authorities Song.”) If you’re not familiar with Utah and/or Mormon culture, you won’t get the jokes in those songs, but trust me, they are hilarious. The other songs should be equally amusing to all persons regardless of geography or creed.

Not everything from the CDs is on here. I might add some more over time. There are a few songs that I just don’t think are funny anymore. There are others that I like but where my performance on the recordings is subpar. I had a tendency to play things increasingly faster. I also had a tendency to play some wrong notes on the piano. That’s the trouble with someone who doesn’t do a lot of live shows recording live albums: I wasn’t practiced at getting things exactly right. I’ve toyed with the idea of re-recording some of these songs in the studio (i.e., my apartment, with my computer), but then of course we’d lose the audience reaction, which I think adds to the effect. So I don’t know.

Also, there are two songs, “Not Fooling Anyone” and “Mel Gibson,” that came after the CDs. The latter was after Mel’s drunk-driving anti-Jew tirade, but before the racist misogyny tirades.

(If you want liner notes on the songs, including the ones not online, here’s “Will Make Jokes for Food,” and here’s “Monkeys and Pirates Are Funny.”)

I don’t write “Snide Remarks” columns regularly anymore, but I was pleased to do so on the occasion of the new “Twilight” movie, “Eclipse,” being released. I was especially pleased because it’s being published at Cinematical, which pays me money, rather than just at EricDSnider.com, which does not.

In other catching-up news: Last week’s movie reviews are “Eclipse” (at Cinematical), “The Last Airbender” (at Film.com) and “Micmacs” (at Film.com).

“Eric’s Bad Movies” at Film.com was about “Sleepwalkers,” a Stephen King misfire from 1992 involving cats, incest, and brief glimpses of Ron Perlman. “What’s the Big Deal?” addressed “Raging Bull,” the fine Martin Scorsese picture from 1980.

I also proposed an idea for a Smurfs-Garfield-Marmaduke crossover film.

“Eric’s Bad Movies” and “What’s the Big Deal?” won’t appear this week because I’m taking a brief vacation. Where will I be, you ask? Not that it’s any of your business, but Utah! And tomorrow, July 6, I’m having a tweet-up in Provo, and everyone is invited: friends, acquaintances, strangers, stalkers, readers, people who follow me on Twitter, people who follow me in real life, everyone! I hope to see you there! Yes, YOU, specifically!

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Listen to “Movie B.S. with Bayer and Snider,” a weekly Internet radio show featuring Jeff Bayer and Eric D. Snider, at PDX.fm. It’s live at 11 a.m. (Pacific) every Friday, then downloadable as a podcast.

Next Tuesday, July 6, if you walk outside and find yourself in the general vicinity of Provo, Utah, cancel whatever you’re doing and come to Pioneer Park at 5:30 p.m. for the First (and Last) Annual Eric D. Snider Tweet-Up and Gathering of General Merriment for Friends and Strangers!

Strictly informal and casual. Nobody’s providing anything. No specific activities are planned, although I guess if someone brings a piano I’ll do a couple songs, just because it would be funny if someone actually brings a piano to the park. Bring your kids if you wanna. Bring food and beverages if you want to eat and drink. If you just want to sit around and mingle, then just bring your butt and your mingling hat.

Who is invited? Everyone! People who follow me on the Twitters! People who read stuff that I write! People I used to know but haven’t seen in forever! People I am friends with but never get a chance to see when I’m in town because I’m never there for very long and maybe I don’t have their phone numbers anymore! People who are entirely unfamiliar with me but found this announcement because they googled “provo park merriment”! Everyone is welcome, except for former employers!

Here is a summary of the pertinent info, in the manner of an invitation, so that you will think you have been specifically invited:

What: The First (and Last) Annual Eric D. Snider Tweet-Up and Gathering of General Merriment for Friends and Strangers

When: Tuesday, July 6, 5:30 p.m.-???? (“????” probably means like 8:00 or so.)

Where: Pioneer Park, 500 W. Center St., Provo, Utah

For whom: Anyone who wants to come hang out for a while, maybe eat some food (if they bring it themselves), say hello, enjoy the park, &c.

UPDATE: I can now confirm that a celebrity guest named Momma Snider will be in attendance! You will treat her with respect, unless your disrespect is especially funny.

The surprising thing about “MacGruber” (review at Cinematical) is that despite being based on a “Saturday Night Live” sketch, it’s not terrible. I know! Believe me, we were as astonished as you are, when we saw it at South By Southwest in March. The general consensus was that wow, this is actually pretty funny.

The less surprising thing about “Shrek Forever After” (review at Film.com) is that, eh, it’s all right. Not bad, not great. If it were an episode of a “Shrek” TV show, it would be fine. Doesn’t seem worthy of the big screen, though, unless you’re seeing it for free, maybe.

In limited release is “The Square,” a fiendishly bleak and gripping thriller from Australia about plans gone awry. You know the type: a couple ordinary people plan a crime of some kind, things go wrong, then more things go wrong when they try to fix the first things that went wrong, and then things go even more wrong, etc. It’s playing now in Portland and in Salt Lake City, to name two places where I know a lot of you people live.

Also in limited release: “The Human Centipede.” To me this title sounds like a jolly children’s book, but it is not. It’s an already-legendary “midnight” movie about a mad scientist who wants to sew three people together into a, um, human centipede. It’s pretty gross, although not nearly as gross as it could have been, given the circumstances.

Other movie things I wrote this week:

Eric’s Bad Movies at Film.com has “Rambo III,” in conjunction with “MacGruber,” which is sort of a parody of movies like “Rambo III.” “Rambo III” is big, loud, and stupid, and I stand by that. Also, I’m more pleased with the outcome of this edition of Eric’s Bad Movies than I have been in a few weeks. Sometimes you nail it, sometimes you don’t, you know?

Speaking of hilarious comedy jokes, I wrote a piece for Cinematical about why it’s a mistake to cut Megan Fox from “Transformers 3.” Be sure to read the comments people have left…

Then there was the “Hurt Locker” producer who managed to win a debate be on the right side of a debate while still being a jerk.

Were you wondering whose fault it is that “Robin Hood” turned out lousy? Turns out we’ve identified the culprits.

And What’s the Big Deal? at Film.com addresses “Chinatown,” a fantastic movie from  1974, a year that also brought us “Blazing Saddles,” “Young Frankenstein,” “The Godfather Part II,” “The Conversation,” and the birth of Eric D. Snider.

Two things you should subscribe to: “In the Dark,” my weekly e-mail collection of the latest reviews, DVD releases, and merriment; and “Movie B.S. with Bayer and Snider,” the weekly Internet-radio program in which Jeff Bayer and I talk about movies. You can also listen to that show live at 11 a.m. (PDT) every Friday. There’s no way to listen to “In the Dark” live, however, as it is an e-mail, not an audio program.

This is the part where I ask you to give $10 to an independent film that I honestly believe is worthwhile, and that also happens to include my huge fat face for about 90 seconds.

The film is called “The Adults in the Room,” and it was made by my friend Andy Blubaugh. If you listened to the April 23 edition of “Movie B.S. with Bayer and Snider,” you heard me and Andy talk about it.

It’s almost like two movies in one, a hybrid of a scripted film and a documentary. The scripted part is based on experiences Andy had as a teenager, when he dated a 30-year-old man named Peter. He hired actors to play his teenage self, Peter, his teachers, classmates, and so forth. But interspersed with that story are documentary scenes about the making of the very film that you are watching. In these scenes, Andy struggles with how to tell this very personal story, and reflects on whether he’s still, after all these years, somehow trying to impress Peter (who’s no longer in his life).

I’m in one of those scenes, talking to Andy about the problems he’s having with the production. I give him a pep talk full of wisdom and advice, as is my wont.

Now, you might be thinking the whole thing sounds rather salacious. I do not blame you! The description is provocative. So is the promotional photo that accompanies the film, a little bit. The film itself, however, is decidedly not salacious and not sensationalized. It has no sex or nudity. Andy’s point — which I think he pulls off pretty well — is to make us think about all this stuff. What makes 18 the magic age that a person is an adult? What really constitutes being an “adult,” anyway? When Andy was 16, he looked up to Peter as a grown-up. But Andy is now the same age that Peter was then, and being 30 doesn’t look so adult after all. Plus, Andy is now directing a film starring a 16-year-old actor, and he’s startled to realize how much influence he has over this kid simply by virtue of being an “adult” and a director. Lots of thought-provoking questions are raised. Certain elements of the based-on-a-true-story part might break your heart.

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This week’s new films, plus Eric’s Bad Movies, What’s the Big Deal?, Cinemaligion, Tribeca, and more, all crammed into one tender, juicy blog post.

The remake of “A Nightmare on Elm Street” is fairly bad, mostly in the ways you’d expect: not scary, not funny, not original, not interesting. Its one saving grace is that I missed the screening and had to see it at the first public showing, last night at midnight, and a couple friends went with me, and we sat away from the (very sparse) audience in case we needed to whisper sarcastic things to each other about the movie, and it turns out we did indeed need to do this. Travis noted afterward that the cast consists entirely of people who are “discount beautiful” — almost good-looking, like movie stars, but not quite. BURN. Anyway, if you must see this movie, see it last night at midnight with me and Travis and Martha.

Also opening is “Furry Vengeance,” a family comedy about Brendan Fraser being punched in the nuts by animals. Missed this screening, too, for the same reason as the other one, which reason I haven’t told you yet. And there was no midnight premiere, alas.

In limited release, you’ll find the amusing and sophisticated “Please Give” (review at Cinematical) starring Catherine Keener.

The reason I missed stuff is that I was in New York for a few days for the Tribeca Film Festival. New York is always a blast, of course, but the festival itself doesn’t have much of a personality, and I didn’t see anything that totally blew me away. I didn’t have time (or money) to catch any Broadway shows, either, so it was kind of a strange NYC visit. But Scott Weinberg was there for a couple days, and you can never fail to have a good time when Weinberg’s around, as required by law.

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Bad news, everybody! Both of the new releases this weekend are bad. “The Losers,” which wants very much to be “The A-Team,” is the kind of bad that’s bearable. But “The Back-Up Plan,” starring Jennifer Lopez as a woman who gets artificially inseminated and THEN meets the man of her dreams, is the intolerable kind of bad. I will not tolerate it.

Oh, and there’s “Oceans,” a nature documentary, but it didn’t screen for critics in Portland, so it’s dead to me.

“Best Worst Movie,” a very fun documentary about terrible cult favorite “Troll 2,” opens today at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin. It’ll hit New York and L.A. in a couple weeks and spread out from there. I’ll remind you about it later, but any Austinites within the sound of my e-voice should check it out immediately.

What was I up to over at Film.com this week? Golly, there was What’s the Big Deal?, focused on “La Dolce Vita,” a film I like very much. Then there was Eric’s Bad Movies, featuring “American Ninja,” about a ninja who is — wait for it — American. I also wrote a piece explaining the differences between the upcoming “Furry Vengeance” and the upcoming “Nightmare on Elm Street” remake.

Last Friday, I debuted a new column at Cinematical about religion in film. It’s called Cinemaligion! I love that title because it’s terrible but memorable. Cinemaligion! You should say it out loud. Anyway, the first Cinemaligion column is about “Footloose.” The feature will run every two weeks.

Thanks to everyone who’s been listening to “Movie B.S. with Bayer and Snider” at PDX.fm! Remember, you can listen live at 11 a.m. (Pacific) every Friday at PDX.fm, or get the recording a couple hours later at the website or from iTunes. (Once again, ignore the “explicit” tag. We keep it PG.) Jeff is out of town this week, so I have a guest sidekick, Portland filmmaker and personal acquaintance Andy Blubaugh. Listen to us, won’t you? WON’T YOU? WHY WON’T YOU??

Subscribe to Eric D. Snider’s “In the Dark,” a weekly e-mail bringing you the latest movie reviews, DVD releases, and other pertinent info, here.

Just one new wide release today, but it’s a good one! “Date Night” (review at Film.com) with Steve Carell and Tina Fey as a married couple! It’s not quite as funny as you’d hope a movie with those two would be, but it’s pretty close. And if there are people who don’t like Tina Fey, I don’t want to know about them.

At Film.com, my columns this week were about “Bonnie and Clyde” (that’s What’s the Big Deal?) and “Heartbeeps” (that’s Eric’s Bad Movies). As it happens, both of those films were also mentioned in today’s edition of “Movie B.S. with Bayer and Snider,” Jeff Bayer’s and my new Internet radio podcast program on PDX.fm. You can download it here or at iTunes.

http://www.ericdsnider.com/misc/eric-d-sniders-in-the-dark/

To sign up for the “In the Dark” e-zine, which brings you all the new movie reviews, DVD releases, and other pertinent info in one handy weekly e-mail, visit this page.

Jeff Bayer and I did the first edition of our new Internet show, “Movie B.S. with Bayer and Snider,” last Friday on PDX.fm. There were no reports of injuries or damages, and the studio was not on fire when we finished, so we consider it a success. At any rate, we’re doing another one this Friday at 11 a.m. (PDT), and every foreseeable Friday, until someone makes us stop.

There are several ways you can listen to this show!

- You can go to PDX.fm and listen live while it happens. This is the most funnest way, because you can send us instant messages that we might respond to on the air. (Correction: We’ll have that capability soon, maybe next week. We haven’t been entrusted with all the technical applications yet.)

- You can subscribe to the show at iTunes. Here’s a direct link. Or you can just search for “Movie B.S.” at iTunes. Ignore the “explicit” tag. Our show isn’t explicit. Apple requires that tag if you ever say more than the occasional “damn,” and we’re reserving the right to drop an S-word (Jeff said one last week!!) or maybe a B-word. We’re keeping it PG, anyway.

- You can go to our page at PDX.fm and listen to shows once they’re posted there, usually within a couple hours of broadcast.

Thanks to all who listened or downloaded last week! We had fun, and the show is bound to get better as we go. The pilot episode is never as good as the rest of the series, right? Maybe later in the season we’ll replace one of the characters (probably Jeff) with a sassy neighbor, or a talking donkey.