Toon Talk: Yo Ho-Hum

By the time a successful film franchise hits the fourth installment, a certain formula has usually settled in. In the case of Disney’s hit Pirates of the Caribbean movies, such by-now familiar aspects include a complex plot steeped in legendary pirate lore, a rogues’ gallery of mythical and/or magical characters, enough double crosses and double-double crosses to make your eyes cross, and plenty of swashbuckling stunts and special effects spectacle.

All that, as well as Johnny Depp’s swarthy, swishy Captain Jack Sparrow, are on hand in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, in theaters now. Gone are original trilogy director Gore Virbinski and lovebirds Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley. In their place are Academy Award nominated director Rob Marshall (of the glitzy and gritty musicals Chicago and Nine fame) and a love interest for Captain Jack himself, played by Oscar winning actress Penélope Cruz.

But even with this mixture of old and new blood, On Stranger Tides is curiously lacking in excitement, as if we’ve all rode this E ticket too many times to care much any more...

Click here to continue reading my Toon Talk review of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides at LaughingPlace.com.

Disney Loads Up on Some Depp

Disney seems to like what the blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy has done for their coffers, as they've recruited the movies' Academy Award nominated star, Johnny Depp, for not one, not two, but possibly three future films.

First up is no big surprise: he'll don the chapeau of the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's upcoming Alice in Wonderland redo. Then there's the no-brainer, a possible Pirates 4. But the real surprise is Depp's casting in the long rumored about update of The Lone Ranger. No, he won't be the Masked Man of the Wild West, but his faithful companion Tonto! This one just got a whole lot more interesting, kimosabe, especially since they would (should) have to get an actor of equal stature to play the title character. Christian Bale immediately comes to mind, but he may be overloaded on franchise flicks of late.

In more Disney news, Cars 2 has been moved up from 2012 to 2011, while none other then Oprah Winfrey has joined the cast of The Princess and the Frog; she'll voice the mother of the title character (the princess, not the frog).

Women We Love: Keira Knightley

Object of our affection: Keira Knightley, actress.

- Her first major role was in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, but her big breakthrough came with the crowd pleaser, Bend It Like Beckham.

- More smaller films followed (including playing Lara in a TV remake of Doctor Zhivago), but she really became a star when she took on the part of swashbuckling siren Elizabeth Swann in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. She returned for the two sequels, Dead Man's Chest and At World's End.

- Next, she was part of the large ensemble of Love Actually, played an ass-kicking Guinevere in King Arthur and Laurence Harvey's bounty hunter daughter in Domino.

- She received her first Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations as Elizabeth Bennet in the 2005 adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice. Another Globe nod came with last year's Atonement.

- As the title character in this week's The Duchess, she could get more award recognition, as could her turn in an upcoming version as King Lear, wherein she'll play Cordelia. She is also rumored for the part of Eliza Dolittle in the upcoming remake of My Fair Lady.

Pirates at the Caribbean

Walt Disney World's largest mid-level hotel, the Caribbean Beach Resort, is undergoing a makeover that will result in 384 family suites themed to the popular Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.

Unique design touches include pirate ship shaped beds and treasure chest chest of drawers. Alas, Johnny Depp and/or Orlando Bloom (or reasonable facsimiles thereof) will not be there to tuck you in at night. Arrr ....

Bat Booty

If you want to be as styling as millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne, all you have to do is head over to The Noble Collection™for their line of Dark Knight inspired bat-accessories, such as:

• Batman™ Begins Cufflinks- You'll look suave and sophisticated for your own dark nights out on the town.
• The Batarang™ Folding Money Clip-Black Satin- Your very own mini-batarang for protecting your very own Wayne fortune.
• Batman™ Titanium Flex Ring- A subtle way to reveal your own secret identity.
• Batman Begins ™ Bronze- This 7-inch tall solid bronze statue will look impressive in your own Bat-Cave.

So head on over to The Noble Collection™to Get Props and Collectibles from Batman: The Dark Knight. Shop Now!And be sure to check out their other movie collections, including The Chronicles of Narnia, The Da Vinci Code, The Golden Compass, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, The Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, Superman and 300.

Awards Watch: The Saturn Awards

The Oscars may have snubbed it, but 300 scored a field best ten nominations from the Saturn Awards, the kudos handed out to genre flicks by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films. Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street also did well, with nine and eight nods each. On the TV side, Lost leads with seven, and newbie Pushing Daisies scored three.

Most interesting is the appearance of Oscar favorites No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood in the mix (along with 300) for the group's Best Action/ Adventure/Thriller Film prize - as if these two haven't dominated this year's races enough. And three of the Best Actors (Blood's Daniel Day-Lewis, Sweeney's Johnny Depp and Eastern Promises' Viggo Mortensen) and one Supporting Actor (No Country's Javier Bardem) are also Academy Award nominees.

One thing puzzles me though: how exactly is August Rush a sci fi, fantasy or horror movie? Oh yeah, maybe it's because Robin Williams appears in it wearing a cowboy hat and sideburns and plays the guitar. Now that's horrifying.

The Saturns will be handed out June 24. For a quick look at the film nominees, see the comments section below.

Awards Watch: Visual Feast

From semi-trucks that turn into giant space robots to a tiny rat who is also a master French chef, the Visual Effects Society Awards were all about "more then meets the eye".

Topping the list is Transformers with four trophies, followed by the Disney double feature of Ratatouille and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End with three and two each, respectively.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix rounds out the feature film winners, and Steven Spielberg was honored with a Lifetime Achievement award.

Awards Watch: Coens Win DGA & More

No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood each added one more trophy to their respective cases last night.

Joel and Ethan Coen won the Directors Guild of America award for No Country, thereby more or less ensuring their eventual victory come Oscar night (in its 60 year history, the DGA and AMPAAS have only not matched 6 times). And Blood's Robert Elswit was anointed the best of the year by his peers in the American Society of Cinematographers.

Also, the last of the guilds has chimed in with their nominations: the Motion Picture Sound Editors. Leading the pack are American Gangster and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End with three nods each. See the comments section below for a quick look at the nominees; winners of the Golden Reels will be announced February 23.

Awards Watch: Oscar Nominations 2007

The nominations for the 80th Annual Academy Awards are finally here, filled with the usual surprises and snubs.

No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood are neck and neck in the lead with eight nominations apiece. Fellow Best Picture nominees Michael Clayton and Atonement (proving that no guild support means nothing to the Academy) racked up seven nods each, with Animated Feature front-runner Ratatouille scoring five. And Juno edged The Diving Bell and the Butterfly out of the BP race, with both netting four nominations each.

Surprises include unexpected nods for actors Tommy Lee Jones, Laura Linney, Ruby Dee and director Jason Reitman. Among the notable snubs: Angelina Jolie, Sean Penn, Jonny Greenwood, Eddie Vedder, The Simpsons Movie, 300 and (tragedy!) Hairspray.

See the comments section below for the complete list of nominees. The Oscar winners will be announced, with or without the strike, on February 24.

MD Fearless Oscar Nomination Predictions - 2007

With or without the specter of the ongoing writers strike, 2007 will be remembered as an unpredictable year in Oscar history.

The tides have shifted within the Academy, and films that once would have been considered shoe-ins (Atonement, Charlie Wilson's War) might now find themselves on the outside looking in come nomination morning this Tuesday. On the other hand, edgier and darker fare (like No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, even Juno) are now the front-runners. And in the end, perhaps that is a good thing.

However, it doesn't make it easy for those of us who attempt to predict who and what has caught the Academy's fancy in any given year. So it is with deft caution that I reveal the Movie Dearest Fearless Oscar Nomination Predictions for 2007:

- Best Picture: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Juno, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood.
- Best Actor: George Clooney (Michael Clayton), Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood), Johnny Depp (Sweeney Todd), Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild) and Viggo Mortensen (Eastern Promises).
- Best Actress: Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth: The Golden Age), Julie Christie (Away from Her), Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose), Angelina Jolie (A Mighty Heart) and Ellen Page (Juno).
- Best Supporting Actor: Casey Affleck (The Assassination of Jesse James), Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Charlie Wilson's War), Hal Holbrook (Into the Wild) and Tom Wilkinson (Michael Clayton).
- Best Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett (I'm Not There), Catherine Keener (Into the Wild), Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone), Saoirse Ronan (Atonement) and Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton).
- Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood), Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men), Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton), Sean Penn (Into the Wild) and Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly).
- Best Adapted Screenplay: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Into the Wild, No Country for Old Men, Persepolis and There Will Be Blood.
- Best Original Screenplay: Juno, Lars and the Real Girl, Michael Clayton, Ratatouille and The Savages.
- Cinematography: The Assassination of Jesse James; The Diving Bell and the Butterfly; Lust, Caution; No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood.
- Art Direction/Set Decoration: Atonement, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Sweeney Todd and There Will Be Blood.
- Costume Design: Atonement, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Hairspray, La Vie en Rose and Sweeney Todd.
- Original Score: Atonement; The Kite Runner; Lust, Caution; Ratatouille and There Will Be Blood.
- Original Song: "Come So Far (Got So Far to Go)" from Hairspray, "Do You Feel Me" from American Gangster, "Falling Slowly" from Once, "Guaranteed" from Into the Wild and "That's How You Know" from Enchanted.
- Film Editing: The Bourne Ultimatum, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood and 3:10 to Yuma.
- Sound Mixing: The Bourne Ultimatum, Hairspray, No Country for Old Men, Sweeney Todd and 300.
- Animated Feature: Persepolis, Ratatouille and The Simpsons Movie.
- Visual Effects: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, 300 and Transformers.
- Sound Editing: The Bourne Ultimatum, No Country for Old Men, 3:10 to Yuma, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End and Transformers.
- Make-Up: La Vie en Rose, Norbit and Sweeney Todd.
- Foreign Language Film: The Counterfeiters (Austria), The Trap (Serbia), 12 (Russia), The Unknown Woman (Italy) and The Year My Parents Went on Vacation (Brazil).
- Documentary Feature: Autism: The Musical, Body of War, For the Bible Tells Me So, No End in Sight and Sicko.

Those last two categories were selected by using my patented "dart and dartboard" method. I would have used it on the short subject categories, but I have no idea what is eligible, so ... there you go. We'll see how well I did come Tuesday morning.

Plus: Be sure to check out the extensive 2007 For Your Consideration gallery at Awards Daily and, if you've ever wondered just how the Oscar nominations are tabulated, Entertainment Weekly has a good rundown of how it is done (it's not as simple as you may think).

And finally: Click here to order the official poster of the 80th Annual Academy Awards, pictured above.

UPDATE: Fearlessly predicted correctly: 68 out of 99 total nominations, roughly 69% accurate.

Awards Watch: Costume Designers Guild

Keira Knightley's green dress from Atonement (recently named the "best film costume of all time" by In Style magazine) is among the nominees for the 10th Annual Costume Designers Guild Awards, to be handed out on February 19.

See the comments section below for a quick look at the nominations.

Awards Watch: BAFTA Nominations

Maybe Atonement isn't out of the Oscar running after all: The Golden Globe Award winner, severely lacking in any major guild support on this side of the pond, racked up an impressive 14 nominations today from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, including Best Film and Best British Film.

Joining it in the former are the two Oscar front-runners, No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood, plus American Gangster (also pretty much MIA in key precursors stateside) and last year's Oscar winner for Foreign Language Film, The Lives of Others, which picked up four other nominations, including a posthumous one for the late Ulrich Mühe.

See the comments section below for a quick look at the BAFTA nominees; the awards will be handed out on February 10.

Awards Watch: Cut and Paste

Two more craft guilds have chimed in with their annual award nominations: the American Cinema Editors and the Art Directors Guild. The ADG Awards will be given out on February 16, with the ACE Awards the following day.

Films appearing amongst both group's nominations include The Bourne Ultimatum, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Ratatouille, Sweeney Todd and There Will Be Blood. See the comments section below for a quick look at both sets of nominees.

UPDATE: Legendary special effects artist Ray Harryhausen will be honored by the Art Directors Guild with the Outstanding Contributions to Cinematic Imagery Award.

Awards Watch: Sound and Fury

Critics loathed it, but the Visual Effects Society loved Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, at least enough to give it a field's best six nominations. Transformers and I Am Legend follow with five each, with all three competing with The Golden Compass and Spider-Man 3 for the top prize. See the comments below for a quick look at the nominees.

Meanwhile, the Cinema Audio Society sounds off with their picks for outstanding achievements in sound mixing: The Bourne Ultimatum, Into the Wild, No Country for Old Men, 300 and Transformers.

The VES will hand out their awards on February 10, with the CAS following suit on the 16th.

Awards Watch: No Globes, No Glory

Helen Mirren displays her Golden Globes from last year.

The writers strike has taken down its biggest victim yet: the Golden Globe Awards. Instead of a glitzy affair with inebriated celebrities, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association will merely announce the winners during a live "press conference". It will still be broadcast on NBC Sunday night -- as a 60-minute "news event", though how they'll manage to stretch out a reading off of names to fill up a whole hour is beyond me.

As for Steven Spielberg's already announced Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award, that will just have to wait until next year. No word yet if that holds true for Rumer Willis as well.

In other awards news:

• It's all drama with the Directors Guild of America award nominations. As expected, Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men) and Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood) were recognized, as did three lucky directors who just saw their Oscar odds triple if not quadruple: Michael Clayton's Tony Gilroy, Into the Wild's Sean Penn and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly's Julian Schnabel. Out of luck: romantic epics (Joe Wright for Atonement), musicals (Tim Burton for Sweeney Todd) and comedies (Jason Reitman for Juno).
• Speaking of guilds, the recent American Society of Cinematographers nominations are as expected: Atonement, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, There Will Be Blood and two nods for Roger Deakins, for both The Assassination of Jesse James and No Country for Old Men. Both the DGA and ASC awards will be handed out on January 26.
• The Broadcast Film Critics Association handed out their Critics' Choice Awards last night in front of a not quite so star-studded crowd. Notable no-show winners included the Coen brothers, Julie Christie and Amy Ryan. See the comments section below for a quick look at the full list of winners, including two for the Movie Dearest New Star of the Year, Hairspray's Nikki Blonsky.
• And finally, the Academy has revealed the short list for their Make Up category. Potential nominees include Sweeney Todd and the latest Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean movies, as well as the lucky bastards who got to rouge on all those Spartan six packs in 300. Alas, Hairspray was passed over; if you were looking for a cross-dressing man in a fat suit to get nominated, you'll have to settle for ... Norbit?

Links via Reuters.com, GoldenGlobes.org, DGA.org, ASCmag.com, BFCA.org and Oscars.org.

Awards Watch: Odds and Ends

Here's a quick roundup of the latest awards news from the past couple of days:

• The National Society of Film Critics named There Will Be Blood their Best Picture, along with three other awards, including Best Actor for Daniel Day Lewis. (For a quick look at their winners, see the comments section below.)
• The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has revealed their "long list" of initial contenders for their awards, with Atonement leading the pack with a whopping 17 "pre-nominations", including Best Picture (duh) and six acting nods, including ones for James McAvoy and Keira Knightley. The final cut will be announced January 16.
• These two films are also among the nominees for this year's USC Libraries "Scripter Award", which is given to not only the screenwriter of an adapted work but also the original author. Into the Wild, No Country for Old Men and Zodiac round out the nominees; the winner will be announced January 9.
• The seven finalists for the Oscars' Visual Effects category have been revealed: The Bourne Ultimatum, Evan Almighty, The Golden Compass, I Am Legend, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, 300 and Transformers. And yes, you read that right: that list does not include the latest adventures of a certain boy wizard or web-slinger.
• The Academy has also announced the winners for this year's Scientific and Technical Achievement Awards, as well as the recipients of the Gordon E. Sawyer Award and the John A. Bonner Medal of Commendation, all to be handed out February 9.
• And finally: Be sure to watch the Broadcast Film Critics Association's Critics' Choice Awards on VH-1 tomorrow night ... it may be your only chance to see the big names walk the red carpet this year if this cursed strike doesn't get resolved soon.

Links via HollywoodReporter.com, Variety.com, Oscars.org, BFCA.org and VH1.com.

Awards Watch: Screen Actors Guild

With today's nominations for the Screen Actors Guild, this year's award race just keeps getting more and more interesting. Into the Wild, pretty much ignored by the Golden Globes, snagged a field best four nominations (including Outstanding Performance by a Cast), while Atonement (the Globe frontrunner with seven nods), Charlie Wilson's War and Sweeney Todd are nowhere to be found on the SAG ballot.

In addition to Wild, the ensemble category includes American Gangster, Hairspray, No Country for Old Men and, somewhat of a surprise, 3:10 to Yuma. New this year is two awards honoring Outstanding Performances by a Stunt Ensemble for both film and television; now how about a voiceover actor award, SAG? And speaking of television, there was more love for Brothers and Sisters, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy and Ugly Betty. And as previously announced, veteran character actor Charles Durning will receive the SAG's life achievement award.

Thanks to a waiver by the striking Writers Guild, the awards will be handed out January 27 in a live telecast on TNT and TBS. For a quick look at the movie award nominations, see the comments section below.

Links via SAGAwards.org and HollywoodReporter.com.

Cinematic Crush: Johnny Depp

Crush object: Johnny Depp, actor/demon talent.
- Why we like him: While bypassing teen idol status, he turned the art of the character actor into super stardom, continually surprising us with his quirky yet expertly crafted performances.
- When did we first notice him: Getting sucked into a bed in the original A Nightmare on Elm Street (his film debut); a baby-faced cop undercover as a high school student in the early Fox TV hit 21 Jump Street.
- Awards on his mantel: Won the Screen Actors Guild Award for his one-of-a-kind Captain Jack Sparrow in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, which also nabbed him his first Oscar nom. Also Oscar nominated as Peter Pan author James M. Barrie in Finding Neverland.
- Other choice roles: Cry-Baby Walker, Edward Scissorhands, Gilbert Grape, Ed Wood, Don Juan, Donnie Brasco, Ichabod Crane, Willy Wonka ...
- Gay for pay: As Bon Bon, the talented smuggler in Before Night Falls.
- Bet you didn't know: He dropped out of school at age 15 in the hopes of becoming a rock musician; once supported himself as a ballpoint pen salesman.
- Yes, it's true: Nicolas Cage turned him onto acting; has had four celebrity fiancées: Sherilyn Fenn, Jennifer Grey, Winona Ryder and Kate Moss.
- Constant collaborator: Has teamed with director Tim Burton six times, including the animated Corpse Bride and this week's Sweeney Todd.
- Can we quote you on that: "The term 'serious actor' is kind of an oxymoron, isn't it? Like 'Republican party' or 'airplane food'."
- And another thing: "I'm an old-fashioned guy ... I want to be an old man with a beer belly sitting on a porch, looking at a lake or something."
- Nickname: Mr. Stench.
- Where we can see him next: As the title character in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (which just netted him his eighth Golden Globe nomination); as John Dillinger in Public Enemies; possibly more Pirate adventures and a visit or two to Sin City.
- Where you can see more of him right now: In this fan video, to the tune of, appropriately, the song "Johnny Depp" by Amy Anne.

Links via Imdb.com, MTV.com and YouTube.com.

Awards Watch: The Satelllites

The International Press Academy announced today their nominees for their 12th annual Satellite Awards ... and don't worry if you've never heard of them. This offshoot group of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is even wackier in their choices then the HFPA is with their more well-known Golden Globes. Kristopher Tapley at Variety's Red Carpet District blog sums them up appropriately by calling them the "let's nominate everyone" awards (literally; in addition to movies and TV like the Globes, they also hand out trophies to DVDs and video games).

Such mostly forgotten films as The Lookout, Stephanie Daley and Goya's Ghosts are included, while biggies like Into the Wild, Charlie Wilson's War and Sweeney Todd are nowhere to be found (the latter two may not have been screened in time, which just makes these even more irrelevant). Granted, some movies we don't want to be forgotten, like Zodiac and 3:10 to Yuma, were remembered, but then again, it doesn't really matter much in the big race anyway, as this untelevised event makes as much impact as a "fart in a windstorm", as Big Edie used to say.

Again, like the Globes, the oddest thing about the Satellites is the category placement, i.e.: what they deem a drama or comedy/musical (I'll be chiming in on the Globes recent decisions on that matter in a future Awards Watch). For example, there's always the question of where to put the music biopics; are they a drama (yes) or musical (no, but they are often called that anyway by these two groups). Apparently, there is no hard and fast rules for this, as this year we have Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose competing for drama, while Cate Blanchett's turn as Bob Dylan in I'm Not There is in the comedy/musical race (to make it even more confounding, their categories are reversed for the Globes). In the meantime, such Movie Dearest favorites as Hairspray and Enchanted are snubbed in one way or another (although they did get four and two nominations, respectively).

The awards (pictured above ... hey, does that thing get Direct TV?) will be presented December 16. See the comments section below for a quick look at the full list of movie nominations.

Links via PressAcademy.com and Variety.com.

Trivial Pursuits: I Scream, You Scream

In all of cinematic history, there has never been a more recognizable -- or revered -- sound effect then that of the so-called "Wilhelm Scream". Even if you have never heard that term before, believe me, you've heard the scream; just watch one of the many video montages collecting some of the many movie scenes the infamous yelp is featured in, and chances are you'll recognize the distinctive cry.

Named after the character "Private Wilhelm" in the low budget 50's western The Charge at Feather River (who emits the signature screech when he is shot in the leg with an arrow), the prerecorded sound effect actually originated in another western, the Gary Cooper oater Distant Drums. Character actor Sheb Wooley (best known for his song "The Purple People Eater") was believed to have recorded it, when a scream was needed for a character being attacked by an alligator (yeah, it was a western ... set in Florida). Sound designer Ben Burtt rediscovered it, and used it in Star Wars when a stormtrooper falls into the Death Star chasm. It has since become an in-joke among soundmen and genre directors (and has even developed a sort-of cult-like following amongst sharp-eared cinephiles), appearing in over 140 movies, including virtually all of producer George Lucas', notably all six episodes of Star Wars and the first three Indiana Jones adventures (we'll have to wait and see ... uh, hear ... if it makes it into his next one).

Other classic and contemporary movies that feature the "Wilhelm Scream" include: Them!, George Cukor's A Star is Born, The Green Berets, The Wild Bunch, Poltergeist, Disney's Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, Batman Returns, Reservoir Dogs, Toy Story, the second and third chapters of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Spider-Man, Kill Bill: Volume 1, all three Pirates of the Caribbean movies, Hellboy, Troy, Peter Jackson's King Kong, Sin City, Superman Returns, 300, Transformers, The Simpsons Movie and even as recent as The Mist, which just opened last week, proof positive that you can't keep a good scream (or sound effect) down.

Links via HollywoodLostandFound.com and YouTube.com.