Six days ago Bad Robot released Action Movie FX, an app that allows the user to insert nutter action effects inside videos shot with their iPhone. Two free effects — Missile Attack! and Car Smash — are in the free version. Four more effects — Chopper Down, Tornado, Air Strike and Firefight — are purchasable.

One of the best musically-driven openings of a dramatic film ever. Far richer in spirit and wit, and so much more enjoyable than any sequence or scene in Hugo. Side benefit: Scorsese’s use of “All The Way to Memphis” made me realize that Mott the Hoople wasn’t as irksome as I’d thought. Agreed — “All The Young Dudes” has aged well.

Notice that three of the memory-bubble films in the just-released Oscar poster are (a) the reprehensible Forrest Gump, (b) the 1989 Best Picture-winning embarassment that is Driving Miss Daisy, and (c) The Sound of Music, which needs no adjective.

I don’t agree with many of the Austin Film Critics Association’s year-end choices, but I respect them. Best Film: Hugo; Best Director: Nicolas Winding Refn, Drive; Best Actor: Michael Shannon , Take Shelter; Best Actress: Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin; Best Supporting Actor: Albert Brooks, Drive; Best Supporting Actress: Jessica Chastain, Take Shelter, etc.

Countless War Horse reviews have described the drenched-in-orange sunset finale (i.e., when Joey returns to the Dorset farm) as a near-copy of the famous red-sunset scene in Gone With The Wind when Rhett tells Scarlett he’s leaving to join the Confederate army. But the more likely inspiration comes from a romantic scene in Stanley Kubrick‘s (and dp Russell Metty‘s) Spartacus.

In response to today’s news that Robert Zemeckis‘s Forrest Gump has been added to the National Film Registry, here’s a reposting of a piece I wrote in October 2008:

“I have a still-lingering resentment of that film, which I and many others disliked from the get-go for the way it kept saying ‘keep your head down’, for its celebration of clueless serendipity and simpleton-ism, and particularly for the propagandistic way it portrayed ’60s-era counter-culture types and in fact that whole convulsive period.

“Every secondary hippie or protestor character in that film was a selfish loutish asshole, and every man and woman in the military was modest, decent and considerate. These and other aspects convinced me that the film was basically reactionary Republican horseshit, and led me to write an L.A. Times Syndicate piece called ‘Gump vs. Grumps,’ about the Forrest Gump backlash.

“No offense to screenwriter Eric Roth, who’s a good fellow and a brilliant writer.

In response to which an HE reader named “hcat” said the following: “I have the same problem with Gump. While it flows well and is quite funny throughout, I hate the way it continually rewards Forrest for his stupidity and punishes Jenny for her exploration.

“What especially irks me is the fact that it criticizes the counter-culture and the hippies, but cues up their music every time they need a quick nostalgia hit. Gump is a country boy and the soundtrack should have been wall to wall Oak Ridge Boys. But that way I can’t imagine it being anywhere near the hit it was.”

You know what 2011’s award season lacks? A film that ends with a big, blustery rant with the lead protagonist explaining exactly what’s wrong and right with the world. A strong sermon, in short. The only 2011 film I can think of that has a “this is who I am and what I believe” scene is Crazy Stupid Love (i.e., the school graduation confessional), and that was awful. Have screenwriters decided that sermon scenes are too on the nose and need to be retired? I’m asking.

I was looking at footage of the Hollywood premiere of Billy Wilder‘s The Spirit of St. Louis, which opened on 4.20.57. One of the celebrity arrivals is Charlton Heston, whose hair is noticably darker than normal. Then it hit me. Of course…that’s his dyed Miguel Vargas hair for Orson Welles‘ Touch of Evil , which was shooting at the time. Before today I’d never seen Heston-as-Vargas without the spirit-glue moustache.

You’re dying in coach on a NY-to-LA flight. You can’t sleep, you’ve read all the periodicals and your battery is almost gone on the iPhone. So you go to the movie-rental options and this is what you find. And they want $8 per viewing .

Every so often an ad campaign will blend really nicely with HE’s general design scheme and dark gray background. This has happened, I feel, with the arrival of Sony’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo ads. The best looking of 2011’s award season.