The Playlist

Get those royalties to Johan Johannsson. It was the ad campaign for “Battle: Los Angeles” that helped this starless experiment hit number one. Showcasing disaster movie footage with that doc-film veirsimilitude to Johannsson’s over worldly drone certainly had an affect on moviegoers, as the film took the top spot at the box office with a solid $36 million. The film should be a sure thing for $100+, and if it has legs, even more. Sony reports the budget figure is $70 million, which smells like bullshit, but if it’s true, this weekend is good news all around. Unless you like good movies and hate bad ones, because this movie sucks the chrome off a fender.

Catherine Hardwicke, for better or worse, has largely defined what we have experienced, cinematically, for the past couple of years. Her influence might get lost in the shuffle, since every subsequent film has been helmed by a different director, but with the look and feel of the first "Twilight"' movie, she set the stage for a whole bunch of copycats and wannabes, which makes it all the more startling that she's returning to remarkably similar (hallowed) ground, with a revisionist take on "Red Riding Hood."

We're beginning to lose faith in you Catherine Hardwicke. You came on the scene with a one-two punch with "Thirteen" and "Lords of Dogtown," took a paycheck gig directing "Twilight" and yes, we understand that your musical "Hamlet" with Emile Hirsch didn't come together, but surely you can do more than retreat to another tween tentpole? Anyway, the latest trailer for "Red Riding Hood" has arrived and it will speak to the 13-year-old girl inside of you.

The Answer Is Probably Not, But Hey, What The Hell...Our exhausting coverage of the films coming out in 2011 continues and yes, we're tired, hungry and a bit cranky. We used to call this our Least Anticipated Films feature, but this year our New Year's resolution was to be a tiny bit more positive. Frankly, the sentiment applies, but this is also the leftover films of 2011 we just don't know what to do with. Many of them look abysmal, some of us glass-half-full Playlist types (yes, there are a few among us) think, "hey, that picture might not be so bad," while other members of the group stare in shock that such an idea could be possibly floated. So yes, basically these are the films that we don't hold out too much hope, the ones we think look downright cheap and dreadful, made only to turn a buck and the occasional few that look half-decent (and may just not have fit in the character count of our Escapist Features, sue us) --- though before you bombard our comments section, please actually read what we have to say about these films before assuming we're completely writing them off. Also, while it wasn't intentional, some of us do find it amusing that most of the cast of "Twilight" fill these halls. Another trend we just realized? Leighton Meester pretty much means box-office poison (poor cute, "Gossip Girl"). Also, Hollywood seems to be banking on the mostly unknown Alex Pettyfer, but he truly looks like a charisma-free zone of blandness. Onwards to 2011, though, not necessarily upwards in this case....