BLU-RAY RELEASE OF THE WEEK

It's the week of Robert Rodriquez apparently. El Mariachi and Desperado were released as one, along with Once Upon a Time in Mexico--completing Rodriguez's El Mariachi trilogy.

Rodriguez famously made El on a $7000 budget--raising the money with help from a friend, as well as participating in medical research studies. The film amazingly won the Audience Award at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival, and now he's a millionaire. While helming the adaptation of Sin City, Rodriguez renounced his Director Guild Association membership so he could collaborate with Sin creator Frank Miller. Because of that, he's no longer eligible to receive a lot of the main stream awards (see: Oscars).

Personal history finished, I'm going with his newest film Machete as the release of the week. In 2007, Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino joined forces to create the exploitation film Grindhouse--a throwback to earlier films of the same look and feel. Some fake trailers were produced in between the two features, including Hobo with a Shotgun, and Thanksgiving. Another one was Machete: a former Mexican Federale who becomes a renegade. In 2010, it became a full-length picture starring perennial scare provider Danny Trejo, Jessica Alba, Jeff Fahey, Robert DeNiro, Michelle Rodriguez and Lindsay Lohan (in between rehab stints, no doubt) among others.

There's many reason to watch Machete: Jessica Alba nude in the shower, Trejo inducing nightmares, Fahey (Frank, from television's LOST) being awesome. Hard though to pick against Mayra Leal, who a) is extremely good looking, and b) kicks Trejo's ass (while nude), then pulls a cell phone out of her vagina to make a call.

PETE POSTLETHWAITE: 1946 - 2011

Pete Postlethwaite was a guy who made every film he was in better. More often than not he was the best part of them. He was probably known for playing the mysterious lawyer 'Kobayashi' in The Usual Suspects, Roland Tembo in The Lost World: Jurassic Park, and Friar Lawrence in Romeo + Juliet.

He also had roles in Alien 3 (1992), The Last of the Mohicans (1992), James and the Giant Peach (1996), The Shipping News (2001), and The Constant Gardener (2005).  Most recently, he played two pivotal figures in two terrific films: Maurice Fisher--the father of Cillian Murphy's character--in Inception. and 'Fergie,' the psychotic florist in The Town.

At the age of twenty-four, he left his job as a teacher, to follow his dream of being on the English stage--much to the chagrin of his parents. He began at the Liverpool Everyman Theatre, where he was colleagues with Bill Nighy, Jonathan Pryce and Julie Walters among others.

Postlethwaite tended to stay out of the spotlight, living away from the bigger cities for more rural farming areas. He was the ultimate character actor, and was rewarded in 1993's In the Name of the Father with an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Director Steven Spielberg, who cast him in two films (the aforementioned The Lost World, Amistad), once said that Postlethwaite was "the best actor in the world." The most incredible thing about his success was that he had any to begin with; seeing that he had a hard to pronounce name and the lack of movie star good looks. The dude was fun to watch though.

He passed away Sunday January 2, 2011, peacefully (albeit critically oxymoronic) from cancer.

THE MECHANIC

See Jason Statham punch. See Jason Statham shoot. See Jason Statham scowl Britishly.

See the red band trailer for Statham's vehicle The Mechanic. This one does look good; it has blood, swearing and sex in it. As as if there were any doubt towards its promise. Statham plays (what else?) a hit man, who is the best there is at what he does (other than Wolverine). His superiors betray him and then he must murder his way to the top of the assassination totem pole.

Ben Foster (3:10 to Yuma) plays a fledging hired gun with an anger issue. But if there's an occupation that could handle that emotion, it's probably the one that deals with death and dishing it out. So yeah, let's have more red band trailers. They're great.

2010 EARNINGS

Thanks to Buzz, Woody and a Michael Keaton'd Ken, Toy Story 3 ($415 million domestically) easily stood alone as the highest earning film of 2010. Depressingly, in for the second slot was the steaming turd known as Alice in Wonderland ($334 million). Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I ($278 million) rounded out the top three.

Breaking down the top ten: seven were sequels or remakes, four were animated, three were based on literature, while only five were actually good films. To no one's surprise, big budgeted pictures ruled the box office this year, as they have in the past. Steadily climbing ticket prices and the influx of IMAX screens no doubt affected the outcome.

Fittingly, the biggest stars in the world put the most people in the seats: Johnny Depp (who was inexplicably nominated for a Golden Globe), Leo DiCaprio, Sam Worthington, Robert Pattinson and the lifeless Kristen Stewart, and Robert Downey Jr.

An interesting tidbit: James Cameron's always omnipresent Avatar--albeit a 2009 release--gained $466 million the past year, which would have outdistanced the third Toy Story by a wide margin.

See the 2010 top ten with domestic and worldwide gross after the break.

ARTHUR CHRISTMAS

For those of us who aren't ready to give up on the holiday spirit, here's the son of Santa in CGI form. Being that it's only a teaser--Arthur Christmas won't be released for about a year--there's not a lot to go on here, but it's all we've got. Dorky elves and an even dorkier human will have to suffice.

RED STATE

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

PIXAR

Pixar studios continues to come out with some of the year's best pictures. Toy Story 3 will undoubtedly be one of the ten finalists for film of the year during the upcoming Oscars; it's just one of a long list of beautiful films they have created. (My favourite is Wall-E, with Monster's Inc. and The Incredibles following.)

Leandro Copperfield has edited a seven minute mash-up of completed features, and it's pretty wonderful to behold. More than any other company, Pixar knocks it out of the park time and time again. The standard they've set is pretty ridiculous. One would think the ride would have to stop soon, but with an impending Monsters sequel set for 2012, I'm not betting against them.