Film Rendition Gets it Right, Says Gitmo Lawyer

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.”

Football flick capitalizes on strong Thanksgiving weekend

(NEWSER) - Building on strong word-of-mouth and an unexpectedly lucrative Thanksgiving weekend, The Blind Side caught and passed New Moon at the weekend box office. The Sandra Bullock vehicle pulled in $20.4 million to $15.7 million for the teen vampire sequel. Both dwarfed Brothers, which underperformed despite stars Natalie Portman, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Tobey Maguire, the Los Angeles Times reports. Another big name, George Clooney, has reason for optimism after Up in the Air raked in $1.2 million in only 15 locations. The top five: More»

Critics wonder: Why did Jim Sheridan need to do this remake?

(NEWSER) - Tobey Maguire, Natalie Portman, and Jake Gyllenhaal deliver solid performances in Jim Sheridan's war movie Brothers, but the film doesn't measure up to the 2004 Danish original, say critics:

• Peter Howell, Toronto Star : "It's still a film worth seeing, if only for the performances, but it seems to be something far short of a labor of love by Sheridan."
• Chris Hewitt, St. Paul Pioneer Press : "There's no indication what Sheridan thought was special or moving about this movie or why he thought it needed to be made. ... It feels oddly sterile."

Indie fave, Oscar winner dated for about 2 years

(NEWSER) - Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal have split up after about 2 years of high-powered, high-profile coupledom. Walk the Line Oscar winner Witherspoon, 33, and Brokeback Mountain Oscar nominee Gyllenhaal, 28, met while working on Rendition in 2007, People reports. A cynic would expect to see him linked next to Natalie Portman, who co-stars with him—and the married Tobey Maguire—in the forthcoming love-triangle flick Brothers. More»

(NEWSER) - The Obama administration is fighting to keep details secret in the case of a former Guantanamo detainee who says he was tortured, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. A San Francisco court has ruled Binyam Mohamed and four others can sue the company they allege flew them to secret CIA prisons—but the government has asked it to reconsider on the grounds of national security. More»