Top 10 Musical Movie Moments

Really? 'Hot Tub Time Machine' is the best we can do?

(NEWSER) - “2010 very possibly is the worst year in the history of motion pictures,” declares Joe Queenan in a hilarious Wall Street Journal piece bemoaning the downfall of American cinema. You know things are bad in Hollywood when:

• “Shia LaBeouf—who looks a bit like the young George W. Bush” is being passed off “as the second coming of Tom Cruise.”
• The top contenders for Next Big Action Star are Jake Gyllenhaal and Adrien Brody. “None of these are logical heirs to the throne abandoned by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Harrison Ford and Sylvester Stallone. They may not even be legitimate heirs to the throne vacated by Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme.”

Movies disappoint, but rarely go the way of Ishtar

(NEWSER) - It's rare these days to see a big-studio movie truly bomb, and that's a shame, laments Tom Shone of Slate . Sure, we get our share of misfires like Jonah Hex or The A-Team , but few reach the depths of those glorious financial busts of yesteryear like Ishtar, Waterworld, and Cutthroat Island—"the swashbuckler that derailed the careers of Renny Harlin, Geena Davis, and Matthew Modine—and the last film to actually force a movie studio to close, Heaven's Gate-style." More»

Prince, Julie Andrews, Francis Ford Coppola deserve another chance

(NEWSER) - Whether they're clearly taking anything just for the money or out-and-out slumming, numerous pop culture icons are mired in a rut of underachievement. The Onion A.V. Club staff fields a question from a Sylvester Stallone loyalist and lists more artists deserving of a second chance:

• Sam Adams can't quit Nicolas Cage: "The near-unremitting river of shit that is his recent output would be disheartening even if it weren’t clear that the main source of his troubles is Cage himself."

Dakota Fanning-Kristen Stewart vehicle divides critics

(NEWSER) - Critics praise the performances in The Runaways, about Joan Jett's seminal '70s band, but whether the flick succeeds is up for debate. Some takes:

• "Say what you will about the Runaways," Peter Travers writes in Rolling Stone , but "they never played it safe. The movie does." He wants more out of the verboten relationship between Dakota Fanning's Cherie Currie and Kristen Stewart's Jett. Still, "Fanning scores a knockout."

Actor's Golden Globes reactions + Gwen Stefani song = Genius

(NEWSER) - Brendan Fraser seems to have a good sense of humor about the world watching an endless loop of his awkward laughing and clapping at the Golden Globes, which is good—it will probably spin out into increasingly involved viral video mashups. Here's one, flagged by Videogum , that sets Fraser's spasmodic appreciation to Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl." More»