Still, what’s a junkie to do when “The Matrix” (the freakin’ “Matrix!”) Blu-ray goes on sale for $5.99? No sales tax. No shipping fees. Just that warm, ticklish feeling in the tummy that comes with the sound the UPS truck pulling to a stop in front of the house.

For those of you who share this dreaded disease, here’s something of a buying guide on some recent Blu-ray releases. Some of these I’ve rented, some I’ve purchased, and some have been sent to me as screeners. The pile got a little overwhelming, so rather than knock them out one at a time, this felt like the most efficient way.

Title links will take to you directly to my dealer, Amazon.

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I Don’t Know How She Does It (2011)

Sarah Jessica Parker, Greg Kinnear, Kelsey Grammar, and Pierce Brosnan are all game, but the script, based on Allison Pearson’s best-seller is a complete letdown. Maybe in 1983, a film about a woman attempting to juggle a high-powered career as a wife and mother might have resonated, but these days that theme’s been completely played out. With its cutesy voice-over and trite romantic complications, what we really have here is a sitcom episode stretched out over 90 minutes. Most off-putting, though, is a hostile mean-streak directed at that legion of left-wing apostates known as stay-at-home moms.

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‘Three Amigos’ (1986)

What a reminder of a simpler time when you didn’t have to worry about gross-out gags and non-stop raunch popping the cherry of your child’s innocence before their time. In 1986, Steve Martin and Chevy Chase were major box office stars, and director John Landis was just as hot. The trio could’ve made any film they chose, and how lucky we are that they chose this frequently hilarious (Look up here! Look up here!) fluff about three silent-era movie actors who inadvertently get caught up in a real-life “Magnificent Seven” situation.

Obviously this isn’t the kind of film that demands you purchase it again on Blu-ray, but my DVD copy was blurry and looked pretty awful in high-def.  And the scenery really is gorgeous in Blu-ray.

By no means is this a classic, but the frequent laughs are earned honestly, the score is better than you remember, and the affection Landis has for the era and his characters really comes through. There’s a Bob Hope vibe throughout, and some of the individual scenes actually are classic.

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‘ Evil Dead 2′: 25th Anniversary Edition – (1987)

This is easily the best entry in this fabulous trilogy and one of the most satisfying (thrills, scares, laughs, gore, The Mighty Bruce Campbell) horror films to come out of the 1980s. It’s also a must-own on Blu-ray. I don’t have to sell you on the film itself. You’re either on board, or you’re not. But after 15 years of suffering through a DVD print that was never that great to begin with, to finally see this low-budget masterpiece in all of its high-def, low-budget glory was a revelation.

There’s also a ton of extras that ensures this is the last copy you’ll ever have to purchase (and lord knows, there’s been a flood of copies).

At ten bucks, this is one of the best Blu-ray deals ever.

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‘The Expendables’: Extended Director’s Cut – (2010)

Director’s cuts are not my cup of tea. It’s just a fact that the original cut of the film is usually the leanest and meanest, and with rare exceptions, a “director’s cut” is really just a cynical way to milk another purchase out of the fanboys. I’m not quite a fanboy, but I am a fan of director Sylvester Stallone’s successful return to the meterosexual-free action films that helped make the 1980s so glorious. Stallone’s cut of the film does no harm,  but it really doesn’t add much. However…

Included in the extras is “Inferno: The Making of ‘The Expendables,’” a superb, feature-length documentary fans will love. If you haven’t already purchased “The Expendables” on Blu-ray but intend to, for the documentary alone I would recommend this. It’s practically a two-for-one deal.

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‘Infernal Affairs’ (2002)

For good or bad, this is the Hong Kong classic that would go on to inspire the Martin Scorsese Best Picture-winner “The Departed.”  The first time I saw the original was just last month on Blu-ray and I slid that disc into the player with great anticipation. Unfortunately, I found the overall story choppy, hard to follow and under-whelming. Understandably, this opinion leaves me in the minority, but those of you who are fans will love the high-def transfer. The cinematography is gorgeous and the on-location shooting only enhances the viewing experience.

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‘Columbiana’ (2011)

Huge disappointment. How do you blow the story of a little girl who grows into a gorgeous, ninja-like assassin seething with vengeance to kill the  men who murdered her parents in front of her? But blow it director Oliver Megaton does. As does writer/producer Luc Besson, who brought us “Taken” and the under-appreciated “From Paris With Love.”

Avoid.

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‘Midnight In Paris’ (2011)

I remained a Woody Allen fan straight through to the deplorable “Melinda and Melinda.” Then I came back for the near-brilliant “Match Point,” the fun and fluffy “Scoop,” and the legitimately suspenseful and well-crafted “Cassandra’s Dream.” But ever since then it’s been one completely unwatchable entry from Allen after another. “Midnight in Paris” isn’t that bad. The first half is downright charming, and Owen Wilson makes for a much better Woody stand-in than Scarlett Johansson, Will Ferrell, or Kenneth Branagh. But the second half is tedious and too-cute by half.

The studio did a great job over-hyping the film’s box office success, and naturally the sycophant entertainment media went along, but the critical accolades are the most confusing. Both the plot and the themes collapse into predictability and the laughs completely disappear thanks to jokes not worthy of a sitcom pilot.

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‘Limitless’ (2011)

Another solid concept blown by poor execution. Bradley Cooper is passable as Eddie Morra, a marginal talent of a writer who can’t come to terms with the fact that he won’t write a best-seller and will now have to join the rest of us in the real world. A super drug that allows him to use 100 percent of his brain changes all of that, and for a while the story really takes off as we see full-potential Eddie in action. The contrived climax involving a violent drug dealer and Eddie’s “Charly“-like fall is a real letdown, though, and almost unforgivable.

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‘The Debt’ (2010)

In 1965, three Mossad agents were charged with bringing a Nazi war criminal back alive to stand trial. Something went horribly wrong, and now it’s 1997 and these three national heroes are about to have their secret uncovered.

While there are some truly engrossing individual scenes, the overall plot just doesn’t work –the flashbacks, the melodrama. And the final scene is just stupid and overwrought. A real waste of two of our finest actors, Tom Wilkinson and Helen Mirren.

The latter reaffirmed Ferrell’s range without making a dent at the box office, and the former should be put in a time capsule and buried indefinitely. “The Other Guys” proved Ferrell could still draw a crowd, but the film couldn’t measure up to the likes of “Anchorman,” “Old School” or the brilliant “Elf.”

But Ferrell’s new comedy, “Casa de mi Padre,” hardly looks like a return to form. instead, It’s a one-joke premise without an actual laugh judging by the trailer. The Spanish-language film casts Ferrell as one of two brothers warring with a drug lord to save the family ranch. The film co-stars Diego Luna (“Contraband”), Nick Offerman and Gael Garcia Bernal.

The trailer looks like a wonderful starting point for a comedy, but we’re still waiting for the actual jokes to be weaved into the footage. The notion of Ferrell speaking Spanish might be good for a chuckle, but the gimmick wears out before the trailer’s two-minute running time elapses. That doesn’t bode well for the finished movie.

This telenovela parody may play well in Latino markets overseas, and perhaps the nation’s growing Hispanic population will rally ’round the material. Those waiting for “Anchorman”-sized laughs may be flustered.

Let’s hope “Casa de mi Padre” is that rare instance where the trailer couldn’t capture the humor found in the full-length film.

Despite the fact that “The Ides of March” is un filme de George Clooney, which ensures that most of those right-of-center will ignore it, it’s ultimately a movie that anyone who actively keeps up with politics should enjoy, especially during the heat of the Republican primaries.  Indeed, “The Ides of March” doesn’t tell you anything you don’t already know, thematically.  Politics?  Dirty?  You don’t say, George.  Please, send more of your pearls of wisdom for the masses to consume.  What the film does provide, though, is a efficiently plotted, well-acted, engaging thriller, despite its cliched old-hat themes.

Clooney co-stars as a Democratic Presidential candidate in the throes of the primaries, playing as a mix of Bill Clinton’s governor running-on-his-record and Barack Obama’s cult of personality claptrap.  This gives Clooney’s character opportunities to espouse what are clearly his own political views from the podium, which contain various liberal talking points and, much like our current president, promises no one could keep, including the elimination of the internal combustion engine in four years and free puppies for everyone.  But Clooney wisely keeps his politics in the background for the most part, not using it merely as a vehicle for his views.

George Clooney’s active role in politics has often sparked speculation as to whether or not the actor would run for political office; after all, a handful of actors like Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger have proven that the leap from acting to political office isn’t necessarily a big one.  After all, both vocations involve making audiences believe your bullshit.  However, Clooney has consistently squashed such speculation by stating that his playboy bachelor reputation would make him unelectable, and “The Ides of March” seems to be an extension of these sentiments.  Too bad it’s not necessarily the fact that Clooney goes through women like Kleenex, so much as his la-la-land Hollywood politics (his cruel mocking of Alzheimer’s patients doesn’t help him in my eyes either, however his humanitarian work is certainly deserving of praise).

The star of the show, though, is Ryan Gosling, who turns in an excellent performance as an idealistic young campaign staffer.  His character’s bright-eyed liberal idealism gives way to cynicism and thuggery after a series of events that puts his career in a corner against the man he is working for, as he sits on top of a sex-scandal bombshell that could sink his boss’s potential presidency before it’s even begun.  Between this and Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive, Gosling has had the best year yet for his career, and with a Terrence Malick film and another team-up with Refn on the horizon, things only seem to be getting better for him.  The short-sighted wrote him off awhile ago, but his diversity and presence as a leading man are on display in every movie he’s done this year, forcing his critics to pay attention.

“Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” and “Good Night, and Good Luck” both proved that Clooney knows what he’s doing as a filmmaker in terms of tight storytelling.  Despite slipping on a banana peel with “Leatherheads”, the man’s head is back in the game here, crafting a political thriller that is pulled tight and engrossing, and also speaks a volumes about Clooney himself and his ego.  For political junkies caught up in the fever of the primaries, “The Ides of March” is a solid experience, even if doesn’t really tell you anything you don’t already know.

Available on Blu-ray and DVD

Other Noteworthy Releases

Courageous: A new movie from the team that made the faith-based sleeper hit “Fireproof”. Like “The Grace Card,” it deals with police officers and the challenges they face on the job and at home.
Available on Blu-ray, DVD, and Amazon Instant

Abduction: A “Bourne” knock-off starring Taylor Lautner, whose lack of credibility as an action star is such that I can only imagine that this is an action vehicle geared towards young girls.  Too bad they’re too busy watching “Twilight” again.
Available on Blu-ray and DVD

The Tuskegee Airmen: HBO’s version of the story of black Air Force pilots during World War II gets a Blu-ray release, just in case that George Lucas version doesn’t deliver.
Available on Blu-ray

Belle de jour: Luis Buñuel’s film starring Catherine Deneuve as woman living a double life as a Parisian housewife and a bordello prostitute gets the Criterion treatment.  Buñuel’s delicious surrealist touch as a director makes this release a must for art-house aficionados.
Available on Blu-ray and DVD

Traffic: Criterion updates their edition of Steven Soderbergh’s multi-stranded drug war tapestry to Blu-ray.  I haven’t caught up with “Traffic” for a second viewing since it was first released on video, but now seems like the best time to revisit it.
Available on Blu-ray

License to Drive: A silly pleasure of an eighties teen comedy starring the two Coreys.
Available on Blu-ray

Mysteries of Lisbon: The final film of Raul Ruiz sent the director out on an ambitious note, as he adapted Camilo Castelo Branco’s sprawling novel into an mammoth four-and-a-half hour endeavor.  Don’t be put off by the enormous running time, as “Mysteries of Lisbon” comes highly recommended.  You just may have to schedule the time in which you plan to see it in well in advance.
Available on Blu-ray and DVD

Bucky Larson – Born to Be a Star: One of those rare films that achieved the incredibly difficult task of aggregating a whopping zero percent freshness rating over at Rotten Tomatoes.  Nick Swardson is one of those comedians who can be really funny, but there’s a limit as to how much you can use him in each film before he gets irritating, hence giving him a starring role is an ill-advised move.
Available on Blu-ray and DVD

Killing Bono: The story of brothers in Ireland who start a rock band, but soon see the taillights of opportunity as their classmates rapidly grow into the biggest band in the world, U2.
Available on DVD

And now you know why Hollywood hates capitalism.

Anyway, more desperate and counter-productive behavior from an industry increasingly unable to create a product the customers would like to own:

Warner Bros., which was the first to impose a 28-day embargo on the release of DVDs to Netflix, RedBox, and other cheap rental companies, is likely to double that delay this year, according to published reports on Thursday. The studio, which is believed to have taken a big hit on DVD sales in the third quarter, is expected to announce the new delay at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week. Universal and 20th Century Fox, which also impose 28-day embargoes on Netflix and Redbox, are also expected to double that time period.

This will fix nothing. Oh, there might be a small bump for pay-per-view and brick-and-mortar Blockbuster, but the real money is in sales, and not only are we losing our passion and the all-important “impulse” to buy new films, we are also getting used to waiting for a longer period of time to see them. And that’s a huge mistake on Hollywood’s part. Sixty days after the release-hype dies down, the movie is released to two of the biggest outlets on the planet. Moreover, this genius move will only hurt sales. That’s how short-sighted  and desperate it is.

In reality, all, these panicked studios are doing is conditioning us to wait longer to see their product. In the long-term, this is beyond dumb. The best way to convince us to buy their product is to offer a test drive. One of the reasons fewer people are buying DVDs is because fewer people are going to the movies. So the only other way to convince us to buy a movie is to let us get a look at it for a buck on Redbox.

I simply don’t know a whole lot of people willing to buy a $15.99 film they haven’t seen. At least not these days when chances are better than not that once the credits roll you feel more than a little cheated.

If you make better movies, Hollywood, we will want to own them.

Duh.

However, if you insist on making us wait to see your product, we’ll find other ways to entertain ourselves. And we will get used to those other ways, which will make what you do less relevant in our lives.

THIS YEAR’S LIBRARY OF CONGRESS SELECTIONS FOR THE NATIONAL FILM REGISTRY

The Big Heat (1953) – You always enjoy seeing personal favorites receive the recognition they deserve, and this hard-boiled noir starring Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame and Lee Marvin is long overdue. Director Fritz Lang proves that in the hands of a genius, the limitations of the Production Code meant nothing when it came to conveying sadism or a good man desperately trying to hold on to his soul. Ford was a very special actor who’s also overdue for recognition. Nobody slow-burned like Glenn Ford. Nobody.

El Mariachi (1992) – For good or bad (mostly bad), this $7000 wonder put overrated director Robert Rodriguez on the map.

Faces (1968) – With this fascinating and somewhat overrated drama, writer/director John Cassavetes probably started the now tired and clichéd attack on suburban America. We’re all unhappy, living in quiet desperation, and kinky moral hypocrites donchaknow. Oh, and gay. Don’t forget how gay we all are — especially us Christians.

Hester Street (1975) – Carol Kane was nominated for an Oscar, and one of the writers is Joan Micklin Silver, who wrote one of my favorite novels (“Chilly Scenes of Winter”), that was later turned into one of my favorite under-appreciated movies of the same name. Why haven’t I seen this?

The Iron Horse (1924) – The epic that put John Ford on the map. Prior to this, however, the now legendary director directed dozens of features, sometimes as many as three or four in a single year. One of the reasons films are so bad today is because directors might do a film every couple of years. Directors from the Golden Age learned through doing… and doing… and doing.

The Kid (1921) – Charlie Chaplin’s masterpiece still makes me laugh and cry.

The Lost Weekend (1945) – Still powerful depiction of alcoholism, though I never quite buy the happy ending.

The Negro Soldier (1944) – One of many films director Frank Capra produced during the war, this one to promote racial tolerance in a military that was still segregated.

Nicholas Brothers Family Home Movies (1930s-1940s) – Fayard and Howard Nicholas were two of the greatest show-stoppers of the thirties and forties. Their specialty numbers (seen mostly in Fox musicals) were always the most memorable part of anything they appeared in. According to the Registry, these home movies are a rare look at life in the black community during the Great Depression.

Norma Rae (1979) – My eighth favorite left-wing film of all-time.

Stand and Deliver (1988) – We’ll never see the sequel when, after his triumph, teacher Jaime Escalante is pushed out of teaching by bureaucrats and the teachers’ union mentality that demands no one make bad teachers look bad. Edward James Olmos (one of our greatest living actors) should’ve won the Oscar for what is one of the best performances of the eighties. Moreover, one of my favorite moments in all of movie history comes when an excited secretary informs Escalante that computers have finally arrived at the school. In a perfect deadpan that says so much, he responds simply: “Yep. That’ll do it.”

Twentieth Century (1934) – This is heresy, but I can’t stand this “masterpiece.” Director Howard Hawks, writer Ben Hecht, stars John Barrymore and Carole Lombard… All the pieces are there, but the non-stop yelling drives me batty. I’ve never made it past the first hour.

War of the Worlds (1953), Porgy and Bess (1959), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), I, An Actress (1977), Allures (1961), Bambi (1942), A Computer Animated Hand (1972), Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (1963), The Cry of the Children (1912), A Cure for Pokeritis (1912), Fruit Cake Factory (1986), Forrest Gump (1994), Growing Up Female (1971).

TARZAN’S CHIMP DIES

In the box set that contains the six original MGM Tarzan films starring Johnny Weismuller and (hubba hubba) Maureen O’Sullivan, a documentary is included about “Cheetah,” who at the time was believed to be in his seventies. He was living in captivity on Florida in middle class luxury. No monkey ever had it so good.

For my money, these six films represent the greatest adventure series ever, and there’s no “lost” film I want to be found more than the original cut of “Tarzan Escapes,” which is visceral enough as is but, before the re-editing, caused people to run out of the sneak previews.

It’s unfortunate the later, sillier entries (including those starring Weismuller at RKO) undermined the franchise as a whole, tarnishing the original six. There’s really nothing else like them. Pure adventure, plenty of action, intelligent storytelling. “Tarzan Escapes” is every bit as good as “Gunga Din,” “King Kong (1933),” “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”

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LAST NIGHT’S SCREENING

Boardwalk Empire – Season One (2011): Hoping to review the upcoming DVD release of HBO’s 1920s-era gangster saga release this week.

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SCOTTDS’ EPIC LINKTACULAR

‘HUNGER GAMES’ SOUNDTRACK TO FEATURE ARCADE FIRE, THE DECEMBERISTS, AND TAYLOR SWIFT

THE 50 BEST MOVIES OF 2011

NOSTALGIA FOR EVERYTHING: IN 2011, WE WANTED TO BE ANYWHERE BUT 2011

SEVEN MOVIES PATRICK STEWART COULD NOT SAVE

A LOOK AT MOVIE CHARACTERS WHO WERE CUT OUT OF THEIR FILMS

65-YEAR-OLD SHIRTLESS STAR PUTS US ALL TO SHAME

WILL KIDS BORN AFTER THE ‘80S EVER GET THEIR OWN ‘GOONIES?‘

RARE AUDIO INTERVIEW EXCERPTS WITH STANLEY KUBRICK

WIDE-OPEN FIELD PUTS ACADEMY AWARD RACE OUT OF FOCUS

15 STRANGEST WAYS MOVIE CHARACTERS HAVE SPENT CHRISTMAS

INFOGRAPHIC: THE COMPLETE LIST OF FILM SUB-GENRES

‘BLACK SWAN’ AND THE ELEVATION OF SCHLOCK

10 PLOTLINES YOU’LL FIND IN SCIENCE FICTION OVER AND OVER AGAIN

15 BOOKS TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN 2012

A LOOK BACK AT SEIJUN SUZUKI’S ‘TOKYO DRIFTER‘

6 FICTIONAL VILLAINS WHO ACCIDENTALLY SAVED THE DAY

2012′S ROCK N’ ROLL HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES’ WEIRDEST FILM MOMENTS

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CLASSIC PICK FOR THURSDAY,  DECEMBER 29

TCM:

Between 1pm and 7:45pm ET, TCM broadcasts all three chapters of “That’s Entertainment,” which represents nearly seven hours of pure pleasure. Usually I’m not a fan of films or documentaries wrapped around clips and the like, but these are so well done you don’t even think of it that way. The era of the MGM musical was Hollywood at the height of its artistic powers.

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Please send comments, suggestions and tips to jnolte@breitbart.com or Twitter @NolteNC.

DO 2012’s NEW RELEASES PROMISE A BOX OFFICE COMEBACK?

In the New York Times story I wrote about earlier today, there was this quote:

The good news for Hollywood is that the first quarter of 2012 looks much stronger than the same period this year, when studios had little to generate audience excitement.

Warner has two sequels — “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” and “Wrath of the Titans,” while Sony has a prominent remake in “21 Jump Street.” Disney will re-release “Beauty and the Beast” in 3-D, followed by Fox’s 3-D re-release of “Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace.” And Lionsgate will weigh in with its highly anticipated “The Hunger Games.”

So two re-releases, a sequel to a flop (“Journey 2″), and another remake of an ’80s television show rank as reasons for Hollywood to be optimistic?

The link in the title looks at the box office slate for the first three months of 2012. Take a look. Anything excite you?

What most struck me about those thirty or so titles was an almost complete lack of movie stars.

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LAST NIGHT’S SCREENING

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) — Like a lot of people, the first time I saw this was when it played late at night on some independent station. This was years before the now-perennial was rediscovered and when I was in my early teens and just starting to discover the world of classic films. Like most of you, I make a point to watch it every year, usually on Christmas day, and like most of you I am gripped through every frame and moved inexpressibly by the closing scene.

And then it stays with me for days.

It’s the close-up when George Bailey realizes that what Clarence is telling him might be the truth; that he was never born. Capra fills the screen with the horror and helplessness on Stewart’s face after he sees what his mother’s become (I screencapped it above), and after that I start to fall apart.

Strange, isn’t it? Each man’s life touches so many other lives. When he isn’t around he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?

What a wonderful thing that Frank Capra, Jimmy Stewart, and Donna Reed lived to see their box office disappointment receive the credit it so richly deserves.

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SCOTTDS’ EPIC LINKTACULAR

WHO WROTE THE MEANEST REVIEW OF ‘EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE?‘

DIRECTOR ALAN TAYLOR CLAIMS ‘THOR 2‘

WHAT FILMS ARE COMING FROM MARVEL STUDIOS IN 2014?

THEN/NOW: THE CAST OF ‘NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION’

5 SCENES WORTH REMEMBERING FROM OTHERWISE FORGETTABLE 2011 MOVIES

10 UNFAIRLY OVERLOOKED FILMS FROM 2011

THE 15 MOST SHOCKING TV DEATHS OF 2011

11 TV SERIES THAT SHOULD’VE SURVIVED 2011

PREVIOUSLY UNPUBLISHED PHOTOS FROM THE SET OF ‘IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE‘

‘IT’S A BUNDYFUL LIFE’ AND 21 OTHER TV VARIATIONS OF IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE

NEW CINEMATIC LAW: ONLY GENIUSES CAN USE 3D

AN AGE-BY-AGE GUIDE FOR INTRODUCING YOUR KIDS TO SPIELBERG MOVIES

A LOOK AT SOME GHOST MOVIES TO SUPPLEMENT THE HOLIDAY EXPERIENCE

GEORGE TAKEI’S GREATEST AND WEIRDEST MOMENTS

A LOOK BACK AT ‘EMMET OTTER’S JUG-BAND CHRISTMAS‘

COOL FAN-MADE POSTERS FOR ‘HOME ALONE‘

CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF ‘WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY‘

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CLASSIC PICK FOR TUESDAY,  DECEMBER 27

TCM:

12:15 PM  Casablanca (1942)  –  An American saloon owner in North Africa is drawn into World War II when his lost love turns up. Dir: Michael Curtiz Cast:  Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid. BW-103 mins, TV-PG, CC.

When men were men, women were women, Hollywood believed in liberty, and the main protagonist’s character arc involved the shrugging off of narcissism to fight for something bigger than one’s self — for freedom and/or country.

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Please send comments, suggestions and tips to jnolte@breitbart.com or Twitter @NolteNC.

From the article:

Hopes are dimming that Hollywood can completely close the gap in domestic box office revenues by the New Year, even though the long Christmas weekend should best last year…

With 2012 fast approaching, Hollywood is now reisgned to the fact that it probably won’t be able to close the gap in domestic box office revenues, even as international grosses surge. One veteran studio executive believes domestic revenues will come in at $10.1 billion, a 3 percent dip from 2010.

Ironically, the year finished strong, with Christmas box office receipts expected to beat 2010’s totals by 3 percent.

Still, the weak overall results for 2011 may prompt several studios to re-examine their business models and could significantly alter future production decisions.

In the new Oscar-buzzed film “The Descendants” by Alexander Payne (“Election,” “Sideways,” “About Schmidt”) George Clooney may be getting all the glory for his terrific lead performance as Matt King, a real estate mogul who has to deal with his comatose wife’s wishes to die at the same time he is forced to become a better father to his two daughters.

But it’s when he learns that his wife had been cheating on him with a smarmy-looking real estate agent named Brian Speer that the film really takes off, as he sets out to find Speer in order to gain closure.

It would be easy to play Speer as a heartless cad, and a lout who callously disrupted the family life and betrayed the marriage of another man. But as Speer, actor Matthew Lillard delivers a powerfully nuanced performance that actually makes viewers feel his pain as he begs for forgiveness from King and also begs King not to tell his own wife what he had done.

Lillard nails the pivotal role in a turn that comes as an almost complete surprise. After all, he’s had two other shots at big-movie success, as one of the two teen killers in the original “Scream” and as the iconic cartoon character Shaggy in the live-action film adaptations of “Scooby-Doo.”

In both cases, Lillard’s star potential waned after the films left theaters. But this third shot at stardom may prove to be the charm, as the Pasadena-based family man – a long-married father of three – has seen his career opportunities soar in just the three weeks since “The Descendants” was released. In fact, he just had an audition for Clint Eastwood’s next film, a fact that even he admits “wouldn’t have happened three years ago.”

Speaking with Big Hollywood, Lillard looked back on his career as a working actor thus far, and spoke of the ups and downs that he and so many other actors face. Yet he remains grounded, down to earth and hopeful about his future.

BH: How’d you decide to live in Pasadena, rather than a more trendy area like the Hollywood Hills or Beverly Hills?

LILLARD: My wife and I lived in the Hollywood Hills, and I had just gotten back from doing “Scooby Doo,” she was pregnant and we needed to decide if we’d go West side or East Side in LA. We found a house in Pasadena that nullified the entire debate. Within five minutes of walking through it, we bought the house. That was ten years ago. I can’t imagine living anywhere else, it’s got everything every family in America would want. Great Schools, restaurants, incredible culture like the Pasadena Playhouse. We’re happy to be living here and can’t imagine living anywhere else.

BH: How did “The Descendants” come about?

LILLARD: The audition came across my desk and I wanted the opportunity to audition for Alexander Payne, I’ve always been a fan of his work. I was to play Clooney’s wife’s lover, and thought there’s no way I’d get this part. But I went in to audition anyway and five of the best looking guys in the world were there and I thought I’ll never get this.

I promised to take my kids to the Warner Bros ranch for a screening of a film that day, but though I can do this quickly and do it fast and be off to take my kids to the movie. I auditioned once, and Payne said it was the best audition he’d ever seen. I said there’s no way I get the part, because there’s no way George Clooney’s wife cheats with a guy like me. They said to get out of the room, and four months later I got the call.

The good news is there’s a lot of hype built up around that part. The whole movie is a ticking clock about when Clooney’s going to confront that guy. The climax of the movie is that scene and I knew reading it, what was coming and what everyone said in terms of the script. I knew there’d be a lot of pressure on that moment because if you suck at that scene you destroy the whole movie – and in an Alexander Payne movie with George Clooney you want to be really good.

BH: How did you manage to make Speer rather sympathetic?

LILLARD: You go back to the genius of Alexander Payne. I think if the character is the quintessential better-looking guy than George Clooney then viewers automatically hate him. But I don’t think you can hate Brian Speer as me, ‘cause I’m a nice guy and the lines are like “Please don’t screw up my life, I love my wife, it was a mistake, just sex.” Alexander Payne did a really smart move in casting a guy like me, a really normal guy. Every time you think it’s going cliché or melodramatic, he makes a left turn and Brian is simply human.

BH: Are you getting any new heat out of the role?

LILLARD: Things are starting to move a little bit differently. I just came back from auditioning for Clint Eastwood and I don’t think that would have been available to me three years ago. Every artistic career ebbs and flows, you’re hot or not and you hang in there to come back. Right now it feels good to come off a lull in my career and if nothing happens at least I have something I can be proud of.

BH: Where did you grow up, and did you always want to act?

LILLARD: I grew up in Detroit, moved to Orange County when I was 10 and lived in New York for a long time.

I was 13 and my dad said take either typing class or acting class, and I took acting. He thought I’d be a salesman and it would help me to be put in front of people. It was the first time in the world where I didn’t suck at something, and adults said ‘You did good.’ I studied at New York’s Circle in the Square, and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts which used to be in Pasadena and studied there. I try to stay busy and endure the downslides that come.

BH: What was it like being part of “Scream,” which just came out of nowhere to be enormously popular?

LILLARD: It was a movie that at the time was really exciting to be part of, always fun to be part of something big and unexpected and it changed the trajectory of my life for awhile.

BH: And how about playing Shaggy?

LILLARD: To be a big part of a big Hollywood popcorn movie is fun and exciting and for better or worse, it provided the opportunity of staying the course as an actor and not selling pharmaceuticals. The good side is I got paid good money, the bad side is it ended my “cool card” doing Scooby Doo. You have to get that back and “The Descendants” is a part of that journey, hopefully.

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Den of Geek sums it up well:

There are some guns, too, some fire, some more guns, a few baseball hats, and a bit of sweat too. The only scene we get is Bruce Willis being all sinister with Sylvester Stallone, but it’ll do for now.

More here.

He’s built his reputation on being an offbeat yet obnoxious slob in such movies as “Superbad” and “Get Him to the Greek,” while occasionally showing a deeper side in the outstanding “Cyrus” (my favorite film of last year) and “Moneyball.”

But for thus far unspecified reasons, Hill has spent the past year on an impressive effort to lose more than 100 pounds. While this will no doubt prolong his life and has transformed him into a surprisingly dapper fellow, it also means that he will have to completely reinvent his performance style.

That might be a good idea after his new movie “The Sitter,” in which he plays Noah, a college-dropout slacker who stumbles into a babysitting gig on the same night the hottest girl he knows makes him a deal: she’ll finally have sex with him, but only if he brings her some cocaine from her drug dealer (Sam Rockwell).

Well, the man’s got needs, so despite being in charge of three young kids – a 13-year-old dreamboat of a boy (Max Records) who turns out to be gay, an 8-year-old girl (Landry Bender) who aspires to be a Kardashian-style club tramp and reality TV star, and an adopted Latino boy named Rodrigo (Kevin Hernandez), who steals the movie with his nonstop criminal antics – he takes her up on her offer.

But when Rodrigo not only steals a porcelain egg filled with cocaine from the dealer but also sets off cherry bombs in the bathrooms of two luxury restaurants, events spiral out of control and the gang is on the run for their lives from the dealer’s henchmen.

Basically, this plays as an updated, gender-switched “Adventures in Babysitting” with a far more crass tone. The kids’ parents in the film have no business leaving their kids with a guy like Noah, and frankly, the parents of the young actors playing the roles should have their heads checked, too.

The kids all swear, watch drug deals, survive shootouts and car chases, and have to hear Noah talk about his desperation for sex throughout the film. At least they were spared being part of the opening scene, in which the obese Hill orally drives a girl (Ari Graynor) to ecstasy and wipes his face before he even delivers his first line.

Basic moral standards thankfully prevent the film from sinking even further, and the film only occasionally scores big laughs thanks to Rodrigo’s criminal behavior and Hill’s energetic performance. Yet director David Gordon Green keeps botching the action with the same sloppy staging that ruined his prior foray into R-rated comedy, “Pineapple Express.”

Very little of “The Sitter” rings true, especially when Noah starts doling out advice to the gay boy after making an immense leap of logic to guess he’s gay. By the time the movie crashes to a conclusion at just 81 minutes, Noah’s also convinced the little girl to ditch the voluminous makeup she’s wearing and has dished out moral life advice to the trampy girl he’s finally learned not to be fixated on.

With any luck, “The Sitter” will be quickly forgotten, giving Hill – who is more amiable and intelligent in real life than in most of his roles – a chance to fly higher in the future. But if he keeps making slapdash retreads like this film, his career will be grounded – just like the kids he’s watching in this film should be.