While not quite as massive as the thousands of films the Starz deal provided to Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” service last year, IFC Films has signed an exclusive streaming deal with Netflix for 53 of IFC’s films.  Among the 53 films are John Sayles’ The Brother From Another Planet and Return of the Secaucus Seven; Christopher Nolan’s first film, Following; James Toback’s When Will I Be Loved?; the Errol Morris’ documentaries Gates of Heaven and The Thin Blue Line; Susanne Bier’s Brothers (which is the original version of the upcoming Tobey Maguire/Natalie Portman/Jake Gyllenhaal movie of the same name); and Alfonso Cuaron’s first feature film, Solo con tu pareja.  The press release doesn’t say whether or not any IFC Films beyond the 53 they’re adding today will become available on “Watch Instantly”.

For those who don’t know, Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” service allows Netflix subscribers who have at least the $8.99/month plan to watch as many streaming movies as they want online-provided that the film is available in their streaming service.  There is a strong selection of movies (I currently have 184 films in my “Watch Instantly” queue), but it can be frustrating to keep checking the “Watch Instantly” page and no new films have been added.  Then again, I already have 184 films I could watch now so I’m not sure why I’m complaining.

It’s unnecessary to poke fun at Twilight and The Twilight Saga: New Moon because both films are funny (albeit unintentionally) enough on their own.  However, parody of these silly movies is always appreciated.  Earlier this week, Conan O’Brien had a very special message for parents as he warned them of some of the risqué behavior in New Moon.

Today, Brandon Routh (Superman Returns) and Martha MacIsaac (Superbad) have a goddamn hilarious send-up of an overlooked question of the Twilight series as well as other vampire-human romance stories: wouldn’t menstrual blood drive vampires insane?  And how could you keep your dumb romance alive if your vamp boyfriend literally wanted to kill you during your period?  The painfully hilarious answers to these questions are after the jump.

I didn’t really understand what Season of the Witch was about beyond being a test case for the credulity of a Nicolas Cage hairpiece.  Now that the first full trailer for the film has appeared online, it looks like 3:10 to Yuma but instead of a posse being besieged by bandits while trying to take an outlaw to a train station, this movie is about a band of warriors besieged by the forces of hell while trying to take a witch to an abbey.  But if you ignore the Rob Zombie music, the dull color palette, and failed attempts at creepy imagery, you still have Ron Perlman kicking ass and getting billed alongside Nicolas Cage and that’s why you should check out this trailer after the jump.

Season of the Witch hits theaters on March 19, 2010.

Earlier this week we brought you the international trailerfor the upcoming greek gods by way of Harry Potter action-adventure flick, Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief.  While that trailer was good, the domestic trailer just went online and it is even better.  It’s action heavy and I have to say that the action looks fantastic.  This trailer give you the plot of the film (Percy Jackson discovers he’s a demigod and must retrieve the bolt of Zeus-played by Sean Muthafuckin Bean-in order to prevent a war), and it has me excited for the film.  I’m not saying it’s the next Harry Potter or anything like that, but I certainly have more interest in the film after seeing this trailer than I did before, which is what a good trailer is supposed to do.

Check out the domestic trailer after the jump.  Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief hits theaters on February 12, 2010.

We’re getting another Underworld movie and there’s no way around it.  I dropped out after the first movie, but it did teach me a valuable lesson: Kate Beckinsale in black leather spandex wielding two guns does not a good movie make.  Also (and I fail to understand this in New Moon as well), why are werewolves and vampires fighting?  I know that there’s some back story explaining it but what makes these two groups inherently in conflict as opposed to any other monster?

Maybe John Hlavin, a writer on The Shield, which is one of my all-time favorite shows, can explain it to me, or at least bring me back to the series.  Thankfully, Hlavin says he aims to do just that (while not alienating the precious fans who must be appeased lest the world suffer their wrath).  Hit the jump for details and wonder if you can include a note on every page saying “Please do not shoot this with a blue filter.”

If you’ve seen The Wire, you know that Idris Elba is a ridiculously talented actor who has yet to become a massive success stateside.  But now that’s just a matter of time as he already appeared last season on The Office (which didn’t really utilize his talent but a lot of folks watch it, myself included), will appear next year in the comic book action flick The Losers and now he’s landed a role in Kenneth Branagh’s upcoming adaptation of Marvel’s Thor.

Show some respect to Stringer Bell and hit the jump for details.

[Obviously, if you've never seen Lost and are waiting until the entire series is available on DVD, stop reading now]

Let the official countdown begin.  In 74 days, Lost one of TV’s best shows will begin its final season.  Starting with a two-hour season premiere on February 2, 2010 at 9pm E.T., we begin (or hope) to unravel the island’s final mysteries: the smoke monster, time jumping, the statue, the temple, the island’s healing power, why the dead appear to the living, and so many other questions.  It’s all come to this and 74 days seems like an eternity and yet by the time the series finale airs sometime in May 2010, it will feel like it was over too fast.

After its two-hour premiere (which will follow the inevitable yet likely helpful one-hour recap show), Lost will begin airing at its regular time slot of 9-10pm ET on Tuesday nights beginning the following week, February 9th.  So grab your constant, blow the hatch, and get ready for the end.  If you’d like to read the press release ABC sent us, hit the jump:

The Twilight Saga: New Moon, like last year’s Twilight, is critic-proof.  We film critics don’t get it, this film isn’t for us, and the fans will love it.  However, none of that means New Moon isn’t worthy of humorous derision or concerned analysis of the disturbing subtext.  New Moon is a bad movie which fails on nearly every level, but that doesn’t mean it’s not fascinating.  The series is one of the most popular young adult stories of the last decade yet the movie, which wouldn’t dare make radical changes to the book, lacks so much: a strong female protagonist, subtlety, joy, a positive message to young women, and above all, shirts.  The men of New Moon need shirts.

I can’t help but laugh that the trailer for Remember Me starts with Robert Pattinson’s character quoting Ghandi before getting into a fist-fight.  I’m not exactly sure what the point of the film is other than Pattinson is a rebel without a cause and people beat him up a lot.  I’ll admit that Pattinson good looking and the camera loves him when he looks like a real person and not an albino with orange contact lenses.  He’s obviously trying to find a career beyond Twilight, but I’m not sure another dramatic romance movie where only a good woman can mend his broken soul is going to accomplish that.

Check out the trailer after the jump along with a brief synopsis.  Remember Me is currently slated to open in theaters on March 12, 2010.

Another video game movie?  Huzzah!  Hollywood desperately wants a slice of the gigantic video game profits that industry continues to reap.  When it was released last Tuesday, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 set the record for biggest video game launch of all-time by selling approximately 4.7 million units in its first 24 hours for a total of $310 million from the U.S. and U.K. combined.  That’s a lot of scratch and apparently the only way for Hollywood to get a piece is to adapt games into movies, because it apparently doesn’t work the other way around even though there have been at least two video games which were better than the properties they came from (Goldeneye 007 and The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay).  So the score is currently Movie-based Video Games: Two, Video Game-based Movies: Zero.

But Brad Pitt and his Plan B pictures are going to try and put movies on the score board by adapting the upcoming Capcom video game, Dark Void.  According to Variety, the story is about, “a pilot who crash lands in the Bermuda Triangle following a routine mission and wakes up to find himself in an alternate world resembling a primitive earth where aliens with superior technology are planning to take over civilization.”  Judging from the box art, this causes the pilot to dress up like the Rocketeer.  The game has a unique “vertical cover” system which is just like the regular cover system except with Dark Void it’s vertical and in mid-air.  Wow, what an innovation.

FunnyOrDie hosted a live Q&A online with writer/producer/director Judd Apatow.  At one point during the Q&A, Apatow was asked if he had any plans for sequels to the hit movies Superbad and Pineapple Express both of which co-starred Seth Rogen who also co-wrote the script with writing partner Evan Goldberg.  Apatow says it’s highly unlikely they would ever do a sequel to Superbad because Rogen and Goldberg don’t want to ruin the original.  As for Pineapple Express, Apatow goes a little further and says they might do a sequel but right now there’s nothing planned.  Finally, Apatow does explain that he’s not opposed to building off previous films as the upcoming Get Him to the Greek is a spin-off of Forgetting Sarah Marshall starring Russell Brand’s character Aldous Snow.

But let’s take a moment for some perspective.  If you watch the clip where he Apatow responds to the question, which we’ve included after the jump, you’ll see that he cuts it with a lot of humor and some slight mockery.  You’re not going to see a lot of enthusiasm from him and it’s pretty clear he has only given the idea the slightest consideration.  We should be grateful for this because we’re already inundated with sequels so why would you want more?  Don’t you trust Apatow, Rogen, and Goldberg to make original comedies?  Let’s admit that Superbad and Pineapple Express aren’t films which require the franchise treatment.  That being said, if Rogen and Goldberg’s latest film, The Green Hornet, scores big at the box office, asking about a sequel won’t be out of the question; it will be the question.

It’s a bit bizarre that Twitter is so polarizing when it’s just a tool.  It’s such a weird thing to get mad at and the accusation that it’s furthering the ADD of our culture is just silly because we were gone further it anyway.  But like all tools it can be useful.  That’s why instead of sending out a press release, Marvel Editor-In-Chief Joe Quesada and prolific comic writer Brian Michael Bendis can quickly give their thoughts about Kenneth Branagh’s upcoming adaptation of Thor.  For instance, here’s what Bendis had to tweet: “Thor movie meeting with Ken Branagh [sic] was over the top amazing. Visited the sets! I was in Odin’s chamber!”  It’s really good news that one of Marvel’s top writers is so enthusiastic about a movie based on a Marvel project and I don’t have to re-tweet something like, “Thor movie looks like an abomination.  What have I done with my life?  Goodbye Crool World.”

But in news that was unexpected as well as exciting, @JonFavreau all but said we’re getting the first trailer for Iron Man 2 with Sherlock Holmes on December 25^th.  It makes sense seeing as folks love the Robert Downey Jr (as well they should) and he stars in both movies. This is the power and the glory of Twitter.  This is straight from the director.  Not the rumor mill, not from a leak, but from the director making use of a new technology to get fans excited.  You can also follow me on Twitter and you can follow Steve!  The possibilities are endless!

Here’s hoping that Sam Worthington is the real deal.  He was good in Terminator Salvation (although he had some trouble nailing down an American accent and occasionally lapsed back into his native Australian) but he’ll have to win over audiences in a big way with his leading performances in Avatar and Clash of the Titans if he wants to lessen the inevitable backlash towards him for having the audacity to be a rising star in Hollywood.

Thankfully, Worthington is playing it smart and not trying to be the biggest star in every upcoming blockbuster.  He’ll just be one of the biggest co-stars in the upcoming adaptation of the upcoming comic book series The Last Days of American Crime.  Hit the jump for details.

Criterion makes the best DVDs and Blu-rays.  Their transfers are impeccable and their special features are fascinating.  When you pay the $35-$40 for a Criterion Collection movie, you’re paying a premium but you’re getting your money’s worth.  But wouldn’t it be great if you could just pay half that?

You can do that right now.  Barnes & Noble is having a special sale where ALL Criterion Collection movies that are currently in print are 50% off their list price (which is what they normally sell for).  You probably won’t find another sale like this for probably at least a year so if you’ve been waiting to buy a particular Criterion DVD or Blu-ray, now’s the time.  Click here and get yours (but preferably do it after I get mine; I don’t need you taking the last copy of The Seventh Seal on Blu-ray).

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today released their list of the 15 films in contention for this year’s Best Documentary Feature Award.  Of these fifteen films, only five will be nominated for the award.  While there are some deserved, if unsurprising, inclusions such as Food Inc. and The Cove, what’s more interesting are the films that didn’t make the cut.  I am bummed that Anvil! The Story of Anvil didn’t make it in but I think those guys have finally achieved the fame that always eluded them and while an Academy nod would’ve been nice, this movie got out there and did its thing.  I’m more upset about the We Live in Public, which won the Grand Jury Prize award in the U.S. documentary category at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.  I get to see these smaller, independent films around this time of year because of screeners sent to critics and now I have no idea get to see this.

But I am over the fucking moon about the snub of Capitalism: A Love Story.  The documentary branch screening committee saw right through Michael Moore’s “timely” documentary (timely if you haven’t turned on the news since September 2008) for the poorly manipulative, lazily research, condescending piece of crap that it was.  Now I don’t have to worry about that garbage taking up a slot that I hope goes to Every Little Step which is one of the best films I’ve seen this year.  Hit the jump to see all 15 documentaries on the short list.

I just saw The Twilight Saga: New Moon a few hours ago and while my review won’t be up until tomorrow, I thought it was important to make sure the fans and especially parents of fans knew some important details about the film.  Last night on The Tonight Show, host Conan O’Brien showed a clip that was rather racy and while it’s safe-for-work and not spoiler-ish, I share his feelings that parents should know about this scene.  Take a look after the jump.