It's been called one of the most anticipated comic book adaptations in years. For years there were rumors - whispers of the red and gold one being brought to the big screen and when it was finally confirmed, fan boys were chomping at the bit for any piece of information to quell their insatiable metallic lust. They were even willing to overlook the hiring of unimpressive director Jon Favreau as long as Tony Stark was brought to life on the big screen. The time has finally come and Iron Man has been unleashed. The first question with a movie this big will always be does it live up to the hype? Unlike superhero predecessors X-Men and Batman Begins before it, the answer is a resounding no. Hopefully Favreau was aiming to please the fan boys with this latest effort because those looking for a good film will find themselves greatly disappointed.

If there's a specific demographic that everyone can agree upon disliking, it's religious fanatics. Whether they're religious extremists in foreign countries or ultra fundamentalists here at home, fanatics antagonize those already opposed to their views and alienate the unembroidered believers; all the while tainting the name of the religion they represent. They also make easy fodder for a horror film. At least, writer Brad Keene and cinematographer-turned-director Phedon Papamichael think so. Lambasting Christian fundamentalists, From Within treads a path exploring the quintessential small town with a dark secret. The stage is set for a movie with a message with some good scares along the way. Unfortunately for the audience, From Within adds nothing to a familiar formula and from beginning to end is a tired and insipid effort.

Hollywood seems to be running out of ideas for original horror movies these days. Whether they're remakes, sequels, or prequels, most mass-produced horror films recently seem to point to an anemic state of creativity. One resource that seems to be ill tapped is history. The Mothman, the Jersey Devil, Sasquatch...just dig a little through the history books and you'll uncover a plethora of urban legends and local mythologies that are ripe for adaptation by the right creative minds. Enter Dying Breed. Directed by Australian Jody Dwyer and co-written by Dwyer, Michael Boughen, and Rod Morris, Dying Breed bases its story on real-life historical convict Alexander Pearce, who was hanged in Australia for cannibalism in 1824. Though the film takes place in contemporary times it asks how, if he had any, would Pearce's descendents live today and what would they have to do to survive? As foreign filmmakers often do with the horror genre, Dwyer impresses with his execution, delivering a quality film that pulls off its formula to a T while still leaving room for some unconventional twists.

Who can't stand reality television anymore? What first started out as a novelty grew into a fad and now has devolved into a plague. Though a few shows were initially humbly produced as social experiments (The Real World, Survivor), eventually the genre mutated into the exploitative (The Moment of Truth), the voyeuristic (The Simple Life), and the malicious (Temptation Island). With premises becoming more ridiculous and the term "reality" becoming more ironic, TV execs are constantly trying to up the bar for a more entertaining product.

Jeff Fisher, writer/director of the horror-comedy Killer Movie, knows all about reality TV. Fisher has worked as a writer/director/producer for reality shows such as The Real World/Road Rules Challenge and Big Brother for years so it should be no surprise that his feature film debut exists within the world he knows so well. What is a surprise (and a delightful one at that) is to see a native son of the biz like Fisher recognizing and lampooning the more destructive elements of reality TV. These inherent themes provide the film with some redemption to make up for the problematic execution of a promising first time script from a first time director.

Disney and Pixar would have you believe that animation is primarily for kids. Bill Plympton would have you believe otherwise. The Academy Award nominated short film director (Your Face, Guard Dog) returns to the realm of feature films at this year's Tribeca Film Festival with Idiots and Angels, a noirish, revealing look at humanity's struggle with their own impulses. Plympton has expressed that animation shouldn't be relegated to Saturday morning cartoons or celebrity-voiced popcorn fodder. Idiots and Angels, with its bleak, atmospheric animation and mature content (including nudity and violence), isn't suitable for the lads and lasses. However, the big boys and girls, whether they know Plympton's work or not, are in for a delightfully twisted vision.

Many horror filmmakers these days attempt to return back to the gritty, documentary style of the 1970s classics; and why wouldn't they? The 70s gave audiences such classics as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Exorcist, and Halloween. However, the reverting back has also given us House of 1000 Corpses, Wolf Creek, and other horror misfires. Yet, what do you suppose would happen if filmmakers revisited the 70s, not for its classics, but for its B-movies? Well, you'd get The Wild Man of the Navidad, a horror feature which tries to capture the look and feel of the tongue-in-cheek horror films from drive-ins decades ago, which is currently playing at the Tribeca Film Festival. While not groundbreaking or overly spectacular in any realm, The Wild Man of the Navidad perfectly serves the niche it sets out to honor. There is some true fun to be had with the film if you don't take it too seriously. After all, the filmmakers don't.

What makes someone a filmmaker? Is it simply the ability to use a camera to tell a story? If that's the case, then any sporadic tourist in Times Square with a consumer handheld can be called a filmmaker. Do you have to specialize in a craft, a templated way of telling a story? If that's the case, then Uwe Boll or Ed Wood could camp under the tent of a filmmaker. Those men were certainly directors, but there comes a certain sense of reverence, authorship, and artistic merit with the term filmmaker. Legendary French director Jean-Luc Godard claims that a filmmaker needs to use a camera to see what cannot be seen without a camera. This seems to imply that anyone can be a filmmaker as long as the story they're telling is opening others' eyes to a side of life, whether internal or external, that they never knew existed. In this sense, prison inmate Omar Broadway has entered the echelon of the filmmaker with his edifying An Omar Broadway Film.

What should a documentary film accomplish? Should it, as its genre entails, objectively document events as they unfold in time ala Gimme Shelter? Should it be a visual essay to support the thesis of the filmmaker as demonstrated in Fahrenheit 9/11? Should it present both sides of an issue in an effort to invoke discussion like Capturing the Friedmans? Often times the angle taken depends on whether the filmmaker has a personal investment in the story. Christopher Bell, director of Bigger, Stronger, Faster*, is personally invested in the issue of steroid usage. You see, Christopher's brothers, now in their thirties, have been using steroids since high school. Bell has refrained from using but daily feels the pressure to give in for an easier way to stay in shape. Though frequently tangential in his methods, Bell uses Bigger, Stronger, Faster* to explore the reasons behind the steroid pressure in America and to clarify if steroids are as big a health threat as everyone assumes.

It's impossible to turn on the TV or peruse the newspaper these days without coming across updates on suicide bombings in Iraq or headlines confirming or denying the effects of global warming. We've certainly dug ourselves into quite a great number of holes running this human race and the plethora of documentaries reminding us of it (I.O.U.S.A., Taxi to the Dark Side, An Inconvenient Truth among others) don't seem to be improving matters. But just when things seem hopekess, out of nowhere comes this illuminating spark that lights up our hearts with an infectious sense of celebration of the human spirit. In January 2008 that spark hit the Sundance Film Festival in the form of Man on Wire which captured both the Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize in the World Documentary Competition. It struck again at the Full Frame Documentary Festival winning yet another Audience Award and a special jury prize. Currently playing at the Tribeca Film Festival, Man on Wire is a captivating look at the risks, rewards, and immortality achieved when one man focuses every fiber of his being on a life-long dream.

Two stuntment were hurt, one of them with "serious head injuries," during a car crash on the set of the latest James Bond film, Quantum of Solace. The scene being filmed was a car chase along a winding road near Italy's Lake Garda resort.

The film lineup for the 2008 Cannes Film Festival has been announced. Among the contenders for this year's Palm d'Or are Soderbergh's two pic Che Guevara bio The Argentine and Guerrilla, Clint Eastwood's Changeling, Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York and Wim Wenders' The Palmero Shooting.

Remember March of the Penguins? That low budget ($3 million) documentary about those adorable flightless birds that grossed a butt-load ($127 million) and took home an Academy Award? Well, Disney remembers it too. In fact, Disney recalls March's success so well they've launched a new nature documentary production unit - Disneynature - geared towards producing and distributing documentaries through at least 2012.

There are only so many times I can say the same thing: the folks from Apatow Productions are good at what they do. Not only have Judd Apatow and crew altered the romantic comedy to adhere to the tastes of a male crowd, but they've done it using the same method seen in Knocked Up - a hilarious leading man who is atypical to conventional Hollywood productions. In Forgetting Sarah Marshall, writer/star Jason Segel and first-time director Nicholas Stoller have created a piece that's a bit less raunchy and a bit more touching than previous films under the Apatow banner. I'll risk the backlash and declare this to be the funniest film of the year so far.

If you're like me (and with my good looks and boyish charm you should be so lucky) you believe that The X-Files was one of the greatest shows on television with a capstone feature film that magically made all the enigmatic pieces of the previous seasons make sense. A second feature film had been whispered about since the show ended six years ago. Now in post-production, the second X-Files film has finally been given a name by series creator Chris Carter: "I Want to Believe."

The studios and the SAG began negotiations yesterday morning but you wouldn't know it from the toned down atmosphere. In stark contrast to the previous negotiations with the WGA which were very much a headline grabbing, out in the open affair, the SAG talks began yesterday at the AMPTP headquarters with both sides issuing a brief statement in the late afternoon that only said talks would resume this morning.