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Joseph Gordon-Levitt Says Social Network Doesn’t Define Our Generation

Joseph Gordon-LevittAs the awards pile up for The Social Network, it's hard to say that Peter Travers' praise for the film -- claiming that it defines a generation -- is going unnoticed. One actor of this generation, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, takes to his good old social networking blog Tumblr to express his disagreement with Travers' assessment, defending the creative, non-narcissistic individuals who love the internet.

"First let me say, I agree that the movie is impeccable, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I have nothing but praise and admiration for the folks who made it.  But on behalf of we who are inheriting a new earth connected by the Internet, I must raise my hand to say that while Mr. Fincher’s Facebook drama certainly nails a lot of today’s more ominous trends, this story only tells half of our tale."

While he concedes that collecting Twitter followers is one of the many disturbing new aspects the internet has birthed, he also points out the good in the latest medium, comparing the so-called threat to the written word and film itself.

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2011 Academy Award Nominations

Posted by Veronica Santiago Categories: Awards,

Oscar statues

Academy Award winner Mo'Nique (Precious) and Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' President Tom Sherak had the honor of announcing the nominees for the 2011 Annual Academy Awards early Tuesday morning.

The King's Speech lead all films this morning with 12 nominations total. True Grit came in second with 10 nods. Meanwhile, The Social Network and Inception both tied with 8 nominations.

Here are some of the noteworthy omissions and inclusions from today’s press conference:

  • Best Director: No Christopher Nolan (Inception). Seriously?? (Even James Cameron has to say something about that!)
  • Best Movie: No for Blue Valentine, yes for Winter's Bone and Toy Story 3 (also nominated in Animation category)
  • Best Actor: No Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine)!!! Also, no Mark Wahlberg (Fighter), no Leo DiCaprio (Inception), no Aaron Eckhart (Rabbit Hole), no Paul Giamatti (recent Golden Globe winner for Barney's Version). Javier Bardem, though, gets a yes for Biutiful.
  • Best Actress: No Julianne Moore (The Kids are All Right), no Halle Berry (Frankie & Alice)
  • Best Supp. Actor: No Andrew Garfield or Justin Timberlake (The Social Network), but a big YES for Jeremy Renner (The Town) and John Hawkes (Winter's Bone)

You can find a list of the nominees from the major Oscar categories after the jump.

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This Week on DVD and Blu-ray: January 11, 2011

The Social Network Blu-rayHere are some of the options available this week:

  • All in the Family: DVD, Blu-ray
  • Army of Shadows: Blu-ray
  • Ben 10: Ultimate Alien: Volume 1
  • Dances with Wolves (20th Anniv. Edition): DVD, Blu-ray
  • The Endless Summer: Blu-ray
  • The Great Debaters: Blu-ray
  • Once Upon a Time in America: DVD
  • Pirahna: DVD, Blu-ray
  • Raging Bull (30th Anniversary Edition): Blu-ray
  • The Social Network: DVD, Blu-ray
  • Sordid Lives: Complete Series

Make sure to also check out the options for this week.

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2011 Golden Globe Nominations (Film)

The King's Speech

Katie Holmes, Josh Duhamel and Blair Underwood helped kick off the 2010-11 awards season Tuesday morning by formally announcing the latest round of Golden Globe contenders.

In the film category, The King's Speech -- starring Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush -- lead all nominees with a total of six nods. (The Fighter and The Social Network tied for second with six each.)

Although the Academy Awards will not necessarily mirror the choices made by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, there were some notable inclusions/omissions in this year's list of Globe nominees:

  • Justin Timberlake did not earn an acting nomination for The Social Network.
  • Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp were both recognized for their work in The Tourist, a movie that has been panned by critics. (BTW - they were nominated in the "Comedy" category.)
  • Speaking of Depp, he will be running against himself. (He was also nominated for Alice in Wonderland.)
  • Wall Street's Michael Douglas has now received another Golden Globe nod for his role as Gordon Gekko. (He won for Best Actor in 1987.)
  • Gwyneth Paltrow did not earn a nomination for her role in Country Strong.
  • 127 Hours was left out of the Best Movie category -- so was True Grit. (The Coen Brothers western received zero nominations.)

The 68th Annual Golden Globe Awards -- hosted again by Ricky Gervais -- will air Jan. 16 on NBC.

(You can find the full list of nominees after the jump. Click here for the TV nominations.)

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Box Office Breakdown: Megamind Opens Large with $46 Million

Megamind

Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis and Tyler Perry contributed to one of the largest November weekends in box office history.

– starring Ferrell, Tina Fey and Brad Pitt – topped the competition this weekend with a $46 million take. The animated comedy opened bigger than How to Train Your Dragon – another Paramount/Dreamworks collaboration – did in March ($43.7 million), but smaller than Despicable Me ($56.4 million) did in July.

Todd Phillips’ , featuring Galifianakis and Robert Downey Jr., also had an impressive open despite landing into second place. The movie, which grossed $32.7 million, had the largest premiere for any R-rated flick in November. (The movie bested the record set by Borat’s $26.4 million in 2006.) The film, though, fell behind The Hangover’s $45 million open in 2009.

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Box Office Breakdown: Saw Franchise Ends with a Win

Saw 3D

The Saw franchise, which has been churning out annual entries since kicking off in 2004, introduced a new twist to the latest October entry. That visual element, plus a calendar shift, helped Saw 3D take first place over the holiday weekend.

Despite the $22.5 million debut, Saw 3D – the seventh and final film in the series – didn’t exactly end the series with a bloody bang. The horror flick had the fifth-best open in the entire franchise -- and that's including the higher ticket prices. (Only the 2004 original and 2009’s Saw VI – which was pitted directly against Paranormal Activity – did worse.)

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Box Office Breakdown: Paranormal Activity Takes Over Theaters

Paranormal Activity 2

Combine a mysterious baby and a barking dog with a $3 million budget – and what do you get? Horror’s biggest opener to date.

, Paramount’s follow to last year’s surprise hit, scared up a record-breaking $40.7 million over the pre-Halloween weekend. The film not only took first place away from Jackass 3D, it edged past Friday the 13th for the scream title. (That 2009 remake debuted to $40.6 million in February 2009.)

Meanwhile, Clint Eastwood’s , which expanded from a limited release, also made entry into the Top 10. The Matt Damon-starrer settled into fourth place with a $12 million take.

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Box Office Breakdown: Jackass Kicks Competition’s Ass

Although the next Saw film isn’t due until October 29, many theatergoers saw pain inflicted in 3D this past weekend.

The premiere of Jackass 3D, a film based on the former MTV series, has already broken franchise and box office records since debuting three days ago. The documentary, which was produced for $19 million, earned a shocking $50.3 million -- approximately $21 million more than 2006’s Jackass: Number Two (and $28 million more than 2002’s Jackass: The Movie).

Paramount’s entry also bested previous October openers. Up until recently, Scary Movie 3’s $48.1 million from 2003 had been the figure to beat.

Meanwhile, Red generated what could have been first-place sized numbers on any other weekend. The action film starring Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and Helen Mirren rang up $21.8 million -- enough for second place.

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Box Office Breakdown: Very Small Take for Wes Craven

My Soul to Take

Neither Wes Craven’s name nor 3-D ticket prices could help Universal this weekend.

, which cost an estimated $25 million to produce, earned a scary $6.8 million over the past three days. (That’s a figure that includes ticket sales from 3-D venues.) The movie, which debuted in sixth place, was just one of several horror-ific disappointments this week. Two-week-old Case 39 fell to ninth place while Let Me In dropped completely out of the Top 10.

Romantic comedy raised $14.5 million, about $1 million shy of first place. (The Social Network was tops for the second time in a row.) Despite heavy promotion, Life was Katherine Heigl’s smallest debut since her pre-Knocked Up days.

, the weekend’s other new wide release, galloped into third place with $12.7 million. Seabiscuit, in comparison, premiered to $20.9 million in 2003.

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Box Office Breakdown: Social Network Liked by Audiences

The Social Network

Theatergoers took time away from their personal Facebook accounts this weekend to enjoy some actual entertainment this weekend.

—David Fincher’s film about the creation of that social media site—raised enough friends over the last three days to land the biopic in first place. Network’s $22.4 million outing also gave screenwriter Aaron Sorkin his best opening to date.

’s long-awaited debut barely went noticed. The Renee Zellweger/Bradley Cooper movie, which had been waiting for a release date for over two years, was produced for an estimated $27 million. Unfortunately, it only earned back $5.4 million of that from domestic audiences.

Meanwhile, also struggled to find a warm welcome. The vampire thriller – a remake of Sweden’s Let the Right One In—took in only $5.1 million, enough for an 8th place finish.

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