The 1,000 Essential Films

Binging, smoking crack, playing twins, and more

(NEWSER) - James Franco's self-amputation (using a blunt pen knife, no less) in 127 Hours is apparently so realistic that audiences are fainting and vomiting at the sight of it. How'd Hollywood pull that off? At first, by using makeup to create a decaying arm, explains one of the film's makeup artists. But when the arm actually gets severed, prosthetic arms and tons of movie blood came into play. The Daily Beast spills the beans on a dozen other cinematic secrets: More»

'The Dark Knight Rises' is lame ... but far from the worst

(NEWSER) - Drum roll, please: The sequel to The Dark Knight will be named ... The Dark Knight Rises. "How thoroughly underwhelming," complains Katie Calautti for Newsweek —while acknowledging it could be much, much worse. She runs down the 10 most pathetic attempts at creativity in the last 20 years of cinema:

1. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010): So it ... takes naps? What does this even mean? "Is greed better when it’s been awake for a solid 72 hours?"

Tying him to the bed is not a good idea

(NEWSER) - Everything we need to know about life we can learn from studying the repertoires of Katherine Heigl and Hugh Grant, right? Maybe not. Cracked points out six romantic acts that are a staple of cinema—and can saddle get real-life imitators jail time.

1. Tearing through the airport: It worked in Love Actually, but bust past security to go after your one true love could get you 18 months in the slammer. Crazy enough, this happened in January.

Track Flick and making 'fetch' happen, anyone?

(NEWSER) - Hard as it is to believe, John Hughes made his last high school-centric film in 1987. Luckily, the 22 years since haven't lacked for flicks that chronicle some part of those awkward, wonderful 4 years. Christopher Borrelli of the Chicago Tribune lists the 10 movies that do it best:

1. Dazed and Confused: Reflects what high school memories essentially are: "plotless, keen distillations of moments and feelings."

(NEWSER) - Hicks and hillbillies can be heroes, too, SpikeTV points out in a look at the greatest characters to go from the trailer park to the big screen.

• HI McDunnough, Raising Arizona: Nicolas Cage's performance remains his finest to this day. His likable baby-snatcher makes some lousy decisions, but "he’s loving and loyal—not to mention having one helluva mustache."
• B-Rabbit, 8-Mile: Eminem's character from the wrong side of the tracks wears his white trash status as a badge of pride, and even manages to turn it into his enemies' disadvantage.