MTV Movies Blog › Eric Ditzian

In a move three decades in the making, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone finally followed through on the promise of their intersecting action-movie careers and had their bodies surgically fused together for their upcoming 3-D sequel, "Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot a Siamese Warrior."

At least that's what we hoped was going on in the above photo. That, or confirmation that while Arnie and Sly's cyborg doppelgangers have been out making movies and governing California for years, the two men have in fact been holed up in side-by-side hospital beds, recounting the glory of a time when a "Batman" movie villain could actually utter the line, "Ice to see you!"

But: no. None of this is true. Instead what we're seeing is two sexagenarians having the time of their lives while getting their creaky bodies fixed up.

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Tags Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, The Expendables 2, the last stand, The Tomb

You might think “Arbitrage” is a staid affair, one more film about financial shenanigans in a long line of them — each one about men with expensive suits and bankrupt morals, about buying low and selling high, about the money, money, money.

Well, it is about all those things. But as Richard Gere put it to MTV News before the movie’s premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, it’s also about “the cocaine rush” of success. He’s not kidding. Gere plays Robert Miller, a billionaire hedge fund manager who seemingly has the perfect life, the perfect family, even the perfect mistress. That is, until he turns 60 and the fact that he’s been running a massively fraudulent empire is about to be exposed.

If this all sounds a bit familiar, that’s no mistake. “You just need to know Bernie Madoff and Teddy Kennedy,” Gere said. “That's all you need to know.”

“He's never had any failures,” he added. “It's all success. It's all adrenaline, cocaine rush of success.”

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Tags Arbitrage, Richard Gere, Sundance 2012

I’ll say this about “Red Lights,” the Cillian Murphy- and Robert De Niro-starring thriller that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on Friday night (January 20): I don’t think I’ve talked as much with people about a movie after seeing it since “Inception.”

Which is not to suggest writer/director Rodrigo Cortés’ feature (his follow-up to 2010 fest fav “Buried”) is anywhere near as perfectly conceived and executed as Christopher Nolan’s escapade within the dream world. In fact, “Red Lights” is honestly not a very good movie, though it’s difficult to say why without giving away all the twists, turns and what-the-eff moments.

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Tags Cillian Murphy, elizabeth olsen, Red Lights, robert de niro, sigourney weaver, Sundance 2012

Beautifully shot and with a memorable, tough-guy-meets-vulnerable-dad performance from Joel Edgerton, "Wish You Were Here" keeps threatening to become a first-rate mystery tale about secrets, lies and sex.

Its story flits back and forth through time, unspooling a tale about a Cambodian holiday gone bad and the ramifications of an ecstasy-fueled party that leaves one man missing and the lives of his vacation mates in shambles. But there are a few weakly drawn characters and a rushed ending that leaves the timeline-hopping plot strands in an unsatisfying cinematic heap. It all made for an entertaining opening to the 2012 Sundance Film Festival on Thursday (January 19), but one that left us itching for some truly great festival films in the days to come.

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Tags Joel Edgerton, Sundance 2012, teresa palmer, Wish You Were Here

Let's not pretend that Rickey Gervais was his old, flame-throwing self on Sunday night at the 2012 Golden Globes. He left his scorching commentary, vicious jokes and devil-may-care hilariousness in 2011, and instead delivered a funny performance that left most feathers unruffled, all egos in tact, and many viewers disappointed.

Yet Gervais on a so-so night still makes for an entertaining experience. He called Colin Firth, arguably the nicest man on Earth, a racist puppy puncher. He compared the Globes to Kim Kardashian: loud, trashy, drunk and easily bought. He questioned Justin Bieber's manhood. Good times, all.

Over at MTV Movies, Ryan J. Downey counted down the host's finest moments of the evening. So check out his full list of Rickey Gervais' best Golden Globes jokes now!

And check out the 2012 Golden Globes winners!

Tags Golden Globes, Golden Globes 2012, ricky gervais

I'd say 2011 was the year of the superhero if 2012 wasn't also set to gift us with a staggering array of caped and non-caped crusaders. Let's just say the last 12 months have delivered the world, to varying degrees of success, "The Green Hornet," "Green Lantern," "Captain America: The First Avenger," and "Thor."

The best of the bunch, however, is without a doubt "X-Men: First Class." What separates the mutants from their comic-book brethren is not story or visual effects or dope fight sequences — though "X-Men" has all of those things in spades — but something much rarer in this genre: characters you actually care about.

And so we honor "X-Men: First Class" as our #6 pick in MTV's best movies of 2011 list. Listen, I enjoyed "Thor" but never for a second did I buy the love story between the God of Thunder and Natalie Portman's earthy scientist. Though "Green Hornet" was a hoot, I never felt invested in Seth Rogen's bad-boy-gone-good arc. "X-Men," by contrast, gave us a level of character development you simply don't see often in superhero flicks, regardless of the year.

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Tags Best of 2011, x-men: first class

The Golden Globe nominations were announced this morning, and for all the talk of outrageous snubs — "Bridesmaids" scene-stealer Melissa McCarthy gets no love? David Fincher is denied for his work on "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"? — there's one omission that's not getting much attention: "The Muppets" was completely shut out.

"My Week with Marilyn" gets a Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical nod, but not Kermit and his felt-covered pals? The Hollywood Foreign Press Association can't find a single slot in Best Original Song for any of Jason Segel's infectious tunes? I think the HFPA needs to look itself in the mirror and ask, "Am I a muppet or a man?"

At least MTV has decided to honor "The Muppets," which lands in the #7 spot on our best movies of 2011 list, joining "50/50" (#8), "The Descendants" (#9) and "Attack the Block" (#10). The full list — including MTV's pick for the best movie of the year — will be announced during a live stream at 4:30 p.m. ET on Friday (December 16).

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Tags Best of 2011, jason segel, The Muppets

I kept fearing "50/50" would take a left turn onto Sappy Boulevard, plod past Preachy Junction and come to a rest in a town populated by "Dying Young," "Autumn in New York" and "Sweet November," where everyone learns pat lessons and becomes better people (except for those who die; those unfortunate folks just help us learn something about ourselves before they pass into the Great Cheesy Beyond).

"50/50" is a movie about cancer, after all, about a young man with the disease. At a certain point star Seth Rogen would have to cease being Seth Rogen, and the whole film would become some YA version of "Beaches," right?

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Based on writer Will Reiser's own experiences and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a young radio producer suffering from a rare form of cancer, "50/50" pulls off the magic trick of staying consistently funny, sweet, affecting and real — and never, ever cheesy. For all these reasons and more, "50/50" lands at #8 on MTV's list of the best movies of 2011.

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Tags 50/50, Best of 2011, joseph gordon-levitt, seth rogen

I confess I'm not the biggest fan of "The Descendants." But clearly I'm in the minority.

For one, the film is a near lock to nab Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Actor (George Clooney) and Best Director (Alexander Payne), and could walk away with wins for all three if Academy voters sour on "The Artist." Two, I don't think I've heard crying like that in a theater since "Schindler's List," or perhaps "Jack and Jill." And three, "Descendants" landed in the #9 spot in MTV's list of the best movies of 2011.

My knock against the movie is squarely with Clooney's Matt King, an egocentric, workaholic, absentee father who suddenly discovers he loves his after she suffers a catastrophic brain injury and is going to die. To me, that's not genuine — it's self-delusional and just loathsome. It'd be one thing if the movie made a point of exploring King's egotism. Instead, he's held up as a hero, a blameless good guy, even as continues to put his needs ahead — indeed, in place — of those of his loved ones. Imagine if this movie were told from the wife's perspective, and it's this tragedy where she's in a loveless marriage with a guy who's a total d--k, and suddenly she falls in love with another guy and starts dreaming of another life for herself but ends up falling into coma. Exact same story, and King's the villain. In Payne's telling, I never really buy King's grief. It feels forced, inauthentic.

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Tags alexander payne, Best of 2011, george clooney, The Descendants

Convinced "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2" is hands down the greatest film of 2011? Calm and cocksure when it comes to your belief that while Oscar might ignore "Attack the Block," that indie alien-invasion flick is the year's finest? What does "best" really mean?

Those are the sort of weighty pop-culture questions the folks at MTV confronted when we put together our top-10 movie list of 2011. MTV Movies' Josh Horowitz, Amy Wilkinson and myself, plus NextMovie's Kevin Polowy and Brooke Tarnoff came together to discuss, debate, argue and occasionally curse about everything that went down at the multiplex this year. In the end, we came up with our 10 picks, and this Friday at 4:30 p.m. ET at MTV Movies and NextMovie, we'll be live streaming the debate.

But we had so much to discuss that we'll only have time for the top five during the live stream. So all week long we'll be revealing picks 10 through six. Today we begin with #10: "Attack the Block."

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Tags attack the block, Best of 2011