Top Ten: "They Are Groot" - Best Cinematic Trees

"Groot" a walking fighting talking (well, sort of) tree is easily the best character within the #1 movie in the world right now. I didn't like Guardians of the Galaxy but I loved Groot. So here's a top ten devoted to his fellow upright leafy green characters. Trees have often played key roles in dramas, fairytales, and horror alike whether as fantastical homes, formidable characters or mysterious passageways to adventure.

So herewith...

TOP TEN: BEST TREES IN MOVIES 

Honorable Mention: That tree Mowgli was hypnotized in in The Jungle Book, spooky 'Tree of the Dead' in Sleepy Hollow, the Christmas tree Gremlins wield like a weapon, the Swiss Family Robinson's main address, any tree that nimbly supports the weight of Crouching Tigers and Hidden Dragons on its delicate green branches, any tree that gives us opportunities to ogle various Tarzans or George of the Jungles from, uh, below (shush. You're no innocent of ogling!), or virtually any colorful tree in Disney's Alice In Wonderland but particularly the one she reads by and dozes on that dumps her into that trippy world of invisible cats, size-altering portions, and rodents having tea parties.

10  Holiday Trees in Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Located in The Hinterlands these seven trees lead you into your various Holiday towns. We only get to see Halloween Town and "what's this?" Christmas town. If only Jack Skellington could have tried them all out. Imagine him delivering Easter eggs or cupid's arrow. Imagine the production design and merchandising opportunities! For all I know these other worlds have already been exploited in bad straight to DVD follow ups but if so I am blissfully ignorant.

Nine more barking great characters / symbols after the jump...

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Sandra at the Top

Yesterday Forbes published their annual list of the top-grossing actresses of the year. They figure in gross earnings and endorsement deals and everything. The list is as follows: 10. Kristen Stewart 9. Natalie Portman 8. Amy Adams 7. Scarlett Johansson 6. Cameron Diaz 5. Angelina Jolie 4. Gwyneth Paltrow 3. Jennifer Aniston 2. Jennifer Lawrence 1. Sandra Bullock. So here's Matthew Eng chasing our very tiny recent Sandra fest with this climactic love letter. - Nathaniel

Sandra at the Spike Awards this summer with two of her most important co-stars Hugh Grant and Keanu Reeves

I don’t particularly get people who don’t like Sandra Bullock.

Yes, the 82^nd Best Actress statuette deserves to be sitting comfortably somewhere on Gabourey Sidibe’s mantelpiece and yes, The Blind Side is a pretty foul piece of limo-liberal fabling. Yes, she is a performer of some obvious limitations that are strikingly evident in even her strongest comedic performances. And yes, she has given us All About Steve and The Proposal and the Miss Congenialitys and Two Weeks Notice and all those other “duds” we love to roll our eyes at in public almost as much as we love to sheepishly watch them in private whenever they pop up on FX or Lifetime or HBO.

I’m more than happy to make couch potato time for Two Weeks Notice, a funny/frisky valentine to New York that’s patently flawed but genuinely sentimental, and even The Proposal, a ridiculous container of rom-com contrivances that would make Kate Hudson cringe, but which has plenty of good moments to spare. No, I haven’t yet laid an eye on All About Steve, which is likely for the better, but I do own While You Were Sleeping and Miss Congeniality, and I’ve sat through the latter’s sequel, um, three, maybe four times.

Why am I glued to these movies when I still have so many unseen Bergmans? [more...]

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The Normal Heart of True Blood Seasons

Sarah or "Noomi"?Here's Adam continuing the march to True Blood's "true death" in just a few weeks...

Alright, so first thing first, does anybody remember last week’s episode? I was racking my brain trying to remember just what the hell happened, and all I can come up with is Sarah Newlin is the new Jesus and Bill went all Red Eye and stabbed a lawyer through in the throat when he didn’t get his way. So…there’s last week’s recap.

Now, on to this weekend's episode "May Be The Last Time"

True Blood was doing soooo well for a few episodes. Plot lines were moving forward, and when they weren’t, characters were growing and deepening, a real rarity in the True Blood universe. Even if this weeks episode wasn’t terrible lets just say that while watching the episode I became increasingly more entranced by the homemade ice cream I made (just two frozen bananas & almond milk blended in a Magic Bullet! Who knew?) than by what was actually happening on the screen.

In between mouthfuls of my glorified frozen banana puree, these thoughts pop in my head...

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Curio: Kino Kicks

Alexa here with your weekly film craftiness.  During my search for Powerpuff-Girl-related paraphernalia for my daughter's birthday I've been running into loads of hand painted shoes. And I mean LOADS.  I am not one to wear one-of-a-kind art on my feet; the weather here in Chicago is not kind to footwear so it seems a waste of cash. But I have to admire the artistry of some of these selections. So if you are a lover of Vans, TOMS or Converse, and are perhaps already planning your fashion for next year's Comic-Con, these are for you. And as an added bonus, most of these sellers create any custom pair you'd like; maybe I could be tempted by a pair of Werner Herzog tribute Vans?

The Notebook Vans, Star Wars Converse, and LOTR Vans, all from this etsy shop.

More after the jump, including Casablanca, Disney villains and Jaws...

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