To be completely honest, I’m as surprised as anyone to find myself fairly excited for the release of Daybreakers. Opening January 8th, this backward spin to vampire stories seems like it may have the right mix of outlandish elements. Will the Spierig twins launch their careers with what has all the makings of at the very least a cult hit? Always a tough call, but there’s just something about this one that has me interested. I’m as over vampires as anyone at the moment, but it’s hard to put me off dark and crazy.

Take a look at the complete collection of stills, and three new clips.

Two-time Academy Award nominee® Ethan Hawke plays Edward Dalton, a researcher in the year 2019, in which an unknown plague has transformed the world’s population into vampires. As the human population nears extinction, vampires must capture and farm every remaining human, or find a blood substitute before time runs out. However, a covert group of vampires makes a remarkable discovery, one which has the power to save the human race.

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The “truly scary” (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times), edge-of-your-seat horror film PARANORMAL ACTIVITY will make its presence known on DVD and two-disc Blu-ray December 29, 2009 from Paramount Home Entertainment.  Hailed as “a horror phenomenon” (Richard Corliss, Time) and “one of the scariest movies of all time” (BloodyDisgusting.com) ...

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One of the most fascinating things you can achieve in film is taking a story that seems decidedly difficult to spin into something interesting, and come up with an end result that is curiously mesmerizing. Of course, given different tastes the available subjects for the apparently dull by definition may include a wide variety of topics. Still, Princess Victoria and Prince Albert fall in love largely by mail in the early 1800s is a tough sell. Even adding in the fact that both of them are being hounded by those who want to take advantage of their potential power, it’s hard to imagine how the idea holds interest for any length of time.

The Young Victoria somehow manages not only to deliver a story that portrays its characters as outstandingly real people, but pulls you into itself to a degree that is almost unbelievable. Leaving you transfixed while you are at the same time unsure how it is managing to be interesting at all is a neat trick.

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Director Rob Marshall is an oddity of the directing world that is rather more difficult to figure than people might expect. With little to recommend him apart from choreography work and a variety of Broadway credits before going into Chicago, the popularity of that film gave him some degree of credibility. His Memoirs of a Geisha is actually a superior effort, though not as widely accessible. Now he brings us Nine , already of staggering positive reception. Apparently he will next be coming at us with the next Pirates of the Caribbean film. Go figure that.

But, somewhere along the road from Chicago to Nine, something has gone wrong. While I only found Chicago slightly above-average overall, there was a definite idea, direction, and purpose. It was the sort of thing you could hardly fault people for liking much more than I did. The musical numbers were sewn in quite well, the acting was solid, and the characters had purpose and a fair amount of soul.

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I've got a last minute chance to win a couple of wintry wonderland titles for you from the folks at Warner Brothers. Happy Feet and The Polar Express on DVD will be on their way to one lucky winner. Remember to visit thewbshop.com ...

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There’s something to the responses you’re going to hear that rather negatively call out Avatar as having the same story as Dances with Wolves and any number of “going native” films, though it should be remembered that none of them are particularly original stories themselves. Apart from going to an alien world to meet your natives, and becoming one of them by transferring your mind into a created body, there isn’t that much that separates Avatar from any number of films, and that’s something you have to look at more openly than some may care to.

After all, people have liked those other films that will be mentioned, and at best they are equally similar to each other.

What I suspect will come flooding forward among what negative reviews Avatar receives is a kind of misplaced response, but one that is understandable. The truth is, the problem is not that Avatar is simply Dances with Aliens, it is that it is that same story told so poorly.

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Next in line for the Ultimate Edition experience, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is another fantastic treatment that is a definite must own for fans of the series. With theatrical and extended versions of the film, all the bonuses of previous issues, plus the next chapter in the Creating the World of Harry Potter series of specials – Characters, any Potter fans are going to love this.

Even moderate fans are really going to appreciate the new series of specials. Characters is an hour and twenty minutes of behind-the-scenes and interview footage that covers the creation and exploration of the characters from all the films. It includes footage of the cast now and during production, and is really an exceptional study of a wide variety of the people you see in the films. Even I, who am not particularly Potter mad, found the look back really enjoyable. The time is filled well, and there’s something for everyone. Whether you want to know a few juicy bits from the stars, how certain actors approached their roles, or the thoughts behind decisions of what you do and don’t see on film, it’s all there. Particularly interesting is the full range of the effort.

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There’s something about just making it through the day that is a force of fear to be reckoned with when the mind is turned toward it. In A Single Man, Colin Firth‘s character George mentions just getting through the day, as one might when going through a difficult time, but he’s putting a gun in his satchel on the way to his job as a college professor, and he means something a little different.

George lost his partner, Jim, not long ago in a car accident, and he’s having trouble dealing with the idea. What makes this film an interesting account of such an idea is that it is rather unlike George, and there is some sense in which he is wondering at his grief as much as he is simply experiencing it. That might be misleading, because George as deep and sentimental a guy as you could want to find, and being torn up by the loss of your partner is nothing like truly out of character for him… but, something slightly off is going on.

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