Spoilers below for anyone who hasn’t yet watched the entirety of the new shark-infested thriller Thrash streaming via Netflix subscription, so be warned!

When it comes to newborn babies being depicted onscreen, Hollywood has an up-and-down track record. There are certainly more wins than failures, but the failures are spectacular enough to tip the scales, and it almost always involves non-human iterations. I’m talking of course about American Sniper’s infamously awful fake baby, and Twilight: Breaking Dawn’s terrifying Renesmee animatronic that was too freaky to use in the actual movie. Thrash is certainly on that level, though not quite the same.

In Thrash, Phoebe Dynevor’s character Lisa is seemingly on her twelfth trimester when the hurricane hits the town of Annieville, where evacuation announcements apparently only go out after it’s too late. She goes from being trapped in a car in rising water to being bed-bound with contractions to having a full-on delivery by herself in the middle of floodwaters. But it isn’t the look of Lisa’s baby that’s the issue in this particular instance. It’s the wildly unrealistic way this child is handled during its first minutes outside of the womb.

Lisa wanted a water birth, and you better believe that she got one, even if it was the most chaotic version possible. She just kinda screamed a bit and plopped that little sucker out, and then pulled her new kiddo out of the water without much effort. You'd think the newborn would have had some serious breathing issues, given it was in the water for seemingly longer than babies usually are for water births. But that's not even my first issue.

Rather, it's after Lisa removes the baby from the water and holds it up to her shoulder...which is sometimes still going under the splashing water. Meaning that baby's face is also dipping along with it, and is getting splashed way more than any newborn's face should be. I get that it's wildly difficult to stay afloat while holding a baby, and that Lisa should be in absolute physical misery, but her first instinct still should have been to hold that child up in front of her, Simba-style, to avoid getting even more filthy water in its teensy lungs.

To be clear, both as a parent and someone who appreciates sound design, I could not be happier that all we hear from this baby is sporadic crying wails, and that there isn't a super-realistic depiction of a choking newborn. But still...

Lisa Puts Her Unrestrained Newborn On Floating Debris

Every one of Lisa's instincts during this this moment is just objectively wrong. First, newborns have next to zero tensile strength to hold their heads up or to balance themselves or anything that comes naturally with time. So it's wild that Lisa, upon realizing she's being targeted by a shark, pretty much swings the baby up and not-quite-slams it onto the bottom side of a desk drawer that she was hanging onto as a floating device.

She then uses a thick piece of wood to somehow cut the umbilical cord, and then shoves the drawer away from her (with enough force that the baby probably would have rolled right off of it and back into the water). But not before getting a trailer-ready one liner.

It's obviously nutty that LIsa perfectly impales the oncoming shark to death, but even widler that the baby didn't move an inch, and was still perfectly fine when Lisa went back for it.

Everyone Literally Gets Flipped Upside Down In The Water, With Zero Issues

As Whitney Peak's Dakota attempted to help Lisa climb up into her boat, a mischievously vindictive shark swam up and knocked the hell out of the bottom of it, flipping the boat over completely. Dakota, who was holding onto the baby at the time, essentially front-flipped into the water and took an awkward dip below the water. Surely the next shot features all three of them struggling to breathe as they rise back up to the surface, since the boat capsizing would have happened too quickly for them to take deep breaths ahead of time, right? (Not that the baby can do that anyway.)

Well, no. In the very next shot, Dakota, the baby and Lisa are all back up with their heads above the water. Nobody's choking. Nobody's coughing. Nobody's hair is plastered to their heads and faces the way it would be in such a situation. If it wasn't for the upside-down boat next to them, I could have been convinced it was just a hallucination.

Again, I wasn't necessarily looking to hear a miserable baby's screams here. But a certain level of danger and realism has to be presented with authenticity. Otherwise, what's the point in Lisa even having a baby within this story if the risks facing the child aren't treated with the proper amount of scrutiny and care? It might as well be the doll from American Sniper.

All in all, Tommy Wirkola's Thrash wasn't as enjoyable in my eyes as his horror comedy's Dead Snow and its even better sequel Dead Snow 2: Red Vs. Dead. But it was still a wild watch, and here's hoping it's popular enough to convince someone to fund Dead Snow 3.

There are many ways that an actor can approach a role, but one of the most talked about is what’s called “method acting.” While what method acting really is is often confused, actors like Daniel Day-Lewis and Christian Bale have built their reputations around allegedly never breaking character during a production. However, Bradley Cooper, Bale's former co-star, reveals that’s not quite the way it works.

Many actors have talked about the experience of working alongside a method actor. We’ve heard bizarre stories from the set of Suicide Squad and the crazy things Jared Leto allegedly did when he played the Joker. Bradley Cooper recently appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, where he said that until he met Christian Bale on the set of American Hustle, he really had no idea how the process worked. He explained…

However, it turns out that at least for Christian Bale, he wasn’t fully immersing himself in his American Hustle character, but rather fully immersing himself in his accent. Bale kept his New York accent throughout American Hustle, but he had no problem talking to his co-workers simply as himself. Cooper continued…

Bradley Cooper says he borrowed the accent trick when he made American Sniper, and it helped him feel more comfortable when portraying his character. That's in spite of director Clint Eastwood apparently making fun of him on set for continuing to talk in his on-screen accent.

Considering that Bale was nominated for an Oscar for American Hustle and Cooper did the same in American Sniper, there's clearly something to be said for this process. To be fair, some directors hate method actors, and some actors who used to do it, like Meryl Streep, have stopped method acting.

While there may have been a particular form of “the method” decades ago, what’s clear now is that every actor simply does whatever they need to do to inhabit a character. Some may go to extremes of not breaking character, but some just hang on to the right accent.

Sometimes there are movies that everyone loves, and you don't. I'm generally pretty open-minded about most movies (it helps to be in this business), and I can usually find something I like in almost every movie. There are, however, some movies that I don't like. These aren't all "hot takes." For most of them, I completely appreciate the quality of the movie in question; they just don't land with me on a personal level.

This is a "me problem" most of the time, but still, I wanted to put this list together to talk about movies everyone loves, but have never done anything for me, so without further ado, let's get into it!

The Shawshank Redemption

Let's just get this big one out of the way. The Shawshank Redemption is generally considered one of, if not the, best movies of the 1990s by many people. The Frank Darabont-directed prison movie, based on a book by Stephen King and starring Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins, is beloved by many, especially those people (like me) who watched it on cable all the time in the '90s. The thing is, I just don't like it. Maybe it's because of the prison element, or that it's a little too... I don't know... cheesy to me. It doesn't work for me.

The Deer Hunter

Where to start with The Deer Hunter? Often cited as not only one of the best war movies ever, it's even thought of as one of the best films of all time. I couldn't disagree more with those assessments. This might be a hot take, but I find it boring. Do we really need to see a Russian-Orthodox wedding as it happens? The history is dubious at best. There is nothing that ties Russian Roulette to POW camps in Vietnam in actual history. While the performances are amazing from the entire cast, the movie, with a runtime of 184 minutes, is about 3 hours too long.

Avatar

The first time I saw Avatar, I was on a double date, and my girlfriend and I spent the whole movie snickering about how silly we thought it was. The other couple on the date loved it (as most seem to), so again, we snickered about how silly the movie is, and how much the other couple loved it. The special effects achievements in Avatar are rightfully lauded, but everything else... I can't take it seriously.

300

People were so excited when the graphic novel 300 got a film adaptation in 2006. While I'm often a stickler for good history in a movie about historical events, that's not what bothers me about this one. For me, the movie just looks and feels incredibly cheesy.

Magnolia

Paul Thomas Anderson is a polarizing director, at least in my own head. I tend to either really love his movies (Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood, Hard Eight, and Inherent Vice are all movies you can watch over and over) or I really don't like them at all, like Magnolia. I remember being so excited to see his follow-up to Boogie Nights in the theater and walking away disappointed and, honestly, pretty bored by the movie.

Scarface

Scarface has to be one of the most dated movies of all time. Talk about cheesy! Everything from Miami in the '80s to the score by the legendary Giorgio Moroder all feels like they are trapped in time - and not in a good way. Though some might disagree, it's also a really boring movie for most of it. Sure, the action scenes are classics, but Al Pacino's weird accent ruins even some of the best lines for me.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

I'm the perfect age for someone who loves Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, as I was a preteen when it came it. It is a movie directed right at the audience I was a part of when it became a smash hit in 1980. I never really liked it, even then. The humor doesn't land for me at all. I do like the animation, but other than that, it's just not for me.

Sin City

I don't read a lot of graphic novels, and that might be why I don't like adaptations like 300 or this one, Sin City. Both are adapted from works by Frank Miller, some of whose adaptations I do really like, like the third season of Daredevil, then on Netflix, now part of the MCU on Disney+. The style of Sin City does little for me, and I just couldn't get past that.

Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid

Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid is a movie I really want to like. I love both stars of the movie, Robert Redford and Paul Newman, and The Sting, which I first saw years before seeing Butch and Sundance, is still one of my all-time favorite movies. I'm also a huge fan of Westerns, and despite this being considered one of the best Westerns of all time, I've never been able to connect with this one. I've tried over the years to get into it, but I end up turning it off every time.

Inglourious Basterds

Quentin Tarantino is a director, like some others on this list, who is always a little hit-or-miss with me. Reservoir Dogs is one of my all-time favorites, and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is an example where I think Tarantino nailed the alternate history in the story he was telling. Inglourious Basterds is the opposite of that. Outside of the incredible opening scene with Christoph Waltz's amazing performance, the movie is just too silly for me, and the ending drives me nuts. I do secretly love Brad Pitt's wacky accent.

Mad Max: Fury Road

Time for me to come clean: I'm not a big fan of any of the Mad Max franchise. Although I'm the perfect age to have grown up with it, I've never been able to get into it. Mad Max: Fury Road is widely praised, and visually, it is really awesome, but seeing it once was enough for me. I have no desire to watch it again.

Titanic

I know I'm not alone here in my dislike of Titanic. That's not to say I hate everything about the movie. I actually really love the set design and the special effects. Visually, it's an amazing movie. It's the story that does absolutely nothing for me. Frankly, it bores me, and now, by no fault of the movie itself, it's been so meme'd and quoted over the years, it leaves me with no desire to watch it again.

Top Gun: Maverick

The original Top Gun is a near-perfect action movie in my opinion. Its sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, was disappointing because it's basically a beat-for-beat remake. That's not why I really don't like it, though. It's that silly ending, which is essentially the exact same idea as Luke blowing up the Death Star in the first Star Wars movie, and that left me really bummed out when I finished watching it.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

When people rank the MCU movies, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is often near the top, or at least in the top third of all the movies. For me, though, it's way down the list. But what do I know? I love Iron Man 2, and everyone else hates that one.

Chariots Of Fire

I'm convinced that the reason people love Chariots Of Fire is solely for the incredible score by Vangelis. I love a good period piece, and by all accounts, I should love this movie, and yet, I don't. It's a movie that somehow won Best Picture over Raiders of the Lost Ark, and that never should have happened!

Heat

Another movie that I think I should really love, but just can't buy some of the ridiculous dialogue is Heat. The epic shootout is amazing, and I remember all too well what a huge deal it was that Al Pacino and Robert De Niro were appearing in scenes together in a movie for the first time. That novelty has worn off, and all we're left with is some silly dialogue now.

The Grand Budapest Hotel

This is where Wes Anderson lost me. I was excited for The Grand Budapest Hotel when it was released, as I was a huge fan of Anderson's earlier work, but this one left me feeling flat and, frankly, a little annoyed at the directing. I love that Anderson has a clear vision and style in his movies, but I'm just not into them anymore.

American Hustle

I once had a friend comment that American Hustle should really be called "American Hair and Makeup." The wardrobe and make-up departments more than earned their money on this one; it's all fantastic. The movie could have been so much better, though.

Once Upon a Time in America

Once Upon a Time in America is one of those movies that has what feels like dozens of different versions. The directors cut, the theatrical cut, the USSR cut... it goes on and on, but I have yet to find a version of the movie that makes me love it. Maybe one day a Redux cut will finally make it click.

The Big Chill

I'm pretty outspoken about my feelings about Gen X nostalgia, and that's my generation. I had to grow up in an America drenched in Baby Boomer nostalgia, and no movie represents that quite like The Big Chill. That said, I will always be grateful for the movie introducing me to Motown with its fantastic soundtrack.

Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump is a movie that never fails to annoy me. Yes, it has a great soundtrack, and I actually love Tom Hanks' performance in it. But it's just dripping in saccharine Boomer nostalgia, and that will always annoy me about it.

Driving Miss Daisy

I remember what a huge deal Driving Miss Daisy was when it was released, and I'm almost positive it was the first movie I ever saw with Morgan Freeman, so it does get points for that. It loses points for everything else.

The Shape Of Water

Let me get this straight... Is The Shape of Water is a better movie than Dunkirk, Get Out, Darkest Hour, Call Me By Your Name, and The Post? That's what the Academy thought when it named the movie Best Picture at the 2018 Oscars. There's just no way. I don't get it. Maybe it's me, but of all the films directed by Guillermo del Toro, The Shape of Water is by far my least favorite.

Grease

I get, Grease is a beloved movie for generations of kids and teenagers. The musical is one of the most popular movies ever made, and that popularity has never waned. Except with me. It never did anything for me. Except for the song "Greased Lightnin'." That's a great tune.

Harold And Maude

I love a great dark comedy, and Harold and Maude should fit that bill for me, but it just doesn't do anything for me at all. I mean, I kind of appreciate that Maude lives in an old train car; that's fun.

The Iron Giant

The Iron Giant is the perfect example of a movie that just came out at the wrong time for me. I was too old to care about kids' movies and too young to appreciate kids' movies as an adult. It's a movie that I finally watched about 20 years after it came out, simply because it was referenced in Ready Player One, but it still just wasn't for me.

American Sniper

I love a good movie about the military, and American Sniper is a very intense one of those, for sure. This is a case where I don't totally hate the movie, but I don't like it enough to ever watch again. I'm not going to get political here, so I'll leave it at that. Also, the fake baby totally took me out of the movie, and I never really recovered.

Easy Rider

I'm a huge fan of late '60s music and, by extension, the hippie culture. I love literature from the era, and so, by all accounts. I should love Easy Rider. Except... I don't. Like other movies on this list, it feels really dated, as do a lot of movies from the era. The motorcycles will always look cool, though.

Brazil

Terry Gilliam is a genius. I love his work with Monty Python, and I'm a big fan of a bunch of his movies, like Time Bandits, 12 Monkeys, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and The Fisher King. I'm a huge fan of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, as well. But I just don't like Brazil. I can't put my finger on exactly why I don't, but I find it a little boring, and while I generally appreciate anything weird, this one may just be a little too off-kilter for me.

Moneyball

I read the book Moneyball years before the movie came out, and I have the same issue with the book as I do with the movie. As a baseball fan, it bugs me that the movie completely downplays the epic pitching staff the A's had in this era and gives far too much credit to Billy Beane's rethinking of player evaluation. It's something that I just can't get out of my head whenever I try to watch the movie.

The Fifth Element

I get why people love The Fifth Element. It's visually stunning, and the cast is amazing. It's missing something that I can't put my finger on. Maybe I need to try this one again, but I'm not sure I'll like it anymore than I used to.

Terms Of Endearment

For me, Terms of Endearment isn't one of those movies that is so good, but so brutal to watch that you can never watch it again; it's just a bland movie that I'll never understand how it won so many awards or was so popular at the time. It's a stellar cast, to be sure, but it seems only to serve one purpose: to make people cry. That isn't my kind of movie.

Even the best movies have scenes in them that completely take you out movie and ruin at least a small of it for the viewer. Films like Saving Private Ryan, The Departed, and even The Godfather all have scenes that almost completely ruin them. Well, that might be a little harsh, they are all still stone-cold classics, but they all have questionable moments that make you wonder how they remained in the movie.

The Baby In American Sniper

American Sniper is a tension-filled masterpiece with a fantastic performance by Bradley Cooper as Navy SEAL Chris Kyle. The movie works on almost every level and yet there is that one scene, when Kyle is holding his newborn baby and it is clear to anyone watching that the baby is a prop. It's hard to believe the makers of the movie let that scene go like they did.

The Rat In The Departed

As if the lesson in The Departed wasn't clear enough, Martin Scorsese hits viewers across the face with a frying pan when the CGI rat walks across the balcony railing in the last shot of the movie. Why a genius like Scorsese felt the need to drive the point home in such a hacky way, we'll never understand.

The Bad Audio Sync In The Big Lebowski

Fans of The Big Lebowski know what we're talking about here. After Walter (John Goodman) fails to get Larry Sellers to crack, he decides to take to the streets and destroy what he thinks is Larry's new car. It's not Larry's, it's the neighbor's car and when the neighbor comes out, there is a really bad audio sync, and all of a sudden it feels like a bad Hong Kong action movie from the '70s. It may be the only flaw in an almost perfect movie.

Superman Turning Back Time In Superman

The Christopher Reeve Superman is still beloved to this day, and with good reason. It's among the best superhero movies ever made and it always will be. But let's be honest about the ending. The scene after Lois dies in her car and Superman is forced to fly around the world and actually turn back time is... awful. It's just so dumb and there are a million better ways that could have been handled.

The Laptop In Skyfall

Skyfall is a great Craig-era James Bond movie. There is no way around the fatal flaw that Q (Ben Whishaw) makes when he plugs a laptop recovered by Bond into MI-5's computer system. Of course, it's a booby-trapped computer that takes down the whole system. Who trained Q? his technology-challenged uncle? Come on, no one in his position would make that kind of mistake, It may sound pedantic, but it's just not reasonable.

Questionable Fight Blocking In The Godfather

Even a masterpiece like The Godfather has a moment that completely takes viewers out of the moment. When Sonny (James Caan) goes to confront Carlo, it's one of the most intense moments of the movie. Unfortunately, the fight blocking is, frankly, terrible and it looks really bad. Even the best can have flaws.

The Off-Color Joke At The End Of Kingsman: The Secret Service

Kingsman: The Secret Service is a really fun movie with some completely ridiculous moments that somehow work, like Samuel L. Jackson eating McDonalds. One insanely stupid moment that doesn't work is the off-color joke at the end of the movie by the damsel in distress. It just doesn't work at all.

Greedo Shooting First In The Re-Edited Star Wars

There are a lot of reasons to complain about George Lucas tinkering with perfection when he re-edited Star Wars in the '90s. Most of it is stuff people can live with, but reworking the scene in the cantina to make Greedo shot at Han Solo first really changes too much about the character and the movie. It should have never been done.

Tell Me I'm A Good Man In Saving Private Ryan

Saving Private Ryan is among the best war movies ever made. It doesn't need that final scene of Ryan asking his wife to "tell him he's been a good man." Even if director Steven Spielberg felt that the final scene at the cemetery in Normandy was needed, the shot of the elder Ryan walking with his family is all that the audience would need to understand who he was. The cheesy line just ruins it.

Mom's Named Martha In Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn Of Justice

People can argue all day long if Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn Of Justice is a good movie. It's certainly a lot better than many critics believe. But there is still that incredibly stupid and silly moment when the two titular superheroes almost bond over the shared name of their mothers. Cheesy!

Darth Vadar's "NOOOOO" In Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith

Whether you love the Star Wars prequels or not, most people agree that Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith is the best of the three. That's even taking into account the oh-so-silly "NOOOOOO" when the newly formed Vader realized his love was gone. You know the others are rough movies when this is including in the best one.

Deadpool In X-Men Origins: Wolverine

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a movie that some love and some despise. It can really go either way. But what can't be disputed is how terrible Deadpool is in it. Enough said. Even Deadpool though Deadpool was terrible as we learn in the post-credits scene of Deadpool 2.

The CGI Of Old Characters In Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is arguably the best Star Wars movie since Return of the Jedi. It takes a classic bit of Star Wars lore and makes it real. What isn't real, and almost takes the audience completely out of the movie is the CGI versions of Princess Leia and Grand Moff Tarkin. It's so disconcerting it can't help but distract from what is otherwise a really great movie.

Flying Through Space In The Martian

For a movie that spends so much time and effort on the scientific details of surviving on Mars, The Martian completely throws it all out of the window at the end with the flying through space bit at the end as Matt Damon's character attempts to reconnect with his crew. It's such a shame such a fantastic movie ends with such a silly scene.

John Michael Higgins' Questionable Accent In Licorice Pizza

It's hard to say if John Michael Higgins' questionable Japanese accent when he is mocking his wife is supposed to play for laughs or what in Licorice Pizza, but the scene really doesn't work no matter what the intention was. It is a rare example of a scene in a Paul Thomas Anderson movie that should have been left on the cutting room floor.

Singing Elton John In Almost Famous

There is just something about a '70s rock band that is sort of loosely based on Led Zeppelin bonding over an Elton John song. It just seems so unlikely that Led Zeppelin or a band of their ilk would ever do something like that. It's so out of place in an otherwise fantastic movie.

Midi-chlorians - The Entire Star Wars Franchise

Midi-chlorians. There is probably no Star Wars fan on Earth who understands why the decision was made to make up these stupid things. They are so unpopular with the fanbase that they have essentially been reconned out of the whole universe and we're all grateful for it.

The Makeover In The Breakfast Club

Like a lot of comedies from the 1980s, The Breakfast Club has some problematic moments. Though not as extreme as a movie like Revenge of the Nerds and its very problematic content, the scene that sticks out like a sore thumb is when Claire (Molly Ringwald) does a makeover on Allison (Ally Sheedy) and she gets the attention of Andrew (Emilio Estevez) because all of a sudden she's pretty. Yikes.

The Plane Chase In Argo

Argo is a fantastic movie based on an even more fantastic true story. One thing that isn't true to the real-life escape portrayed in the film is the chase by the Iranian police of the plane on the runway as the embassy workers escape to freedom. It's a totally unnecessary addition to "Hollywood up" the ending. Just tell the remarkable story! It doesn't need more action!

Miranda Tate's Death In The Dark Knight Rises

Miranda Tate's death in The Dark Knight Rises has been derided by many as not worthy of the character. And that is totally true. It's just so...anti-climatic. She just... dies.

Every Scene With Mickey Rooney In Breakfast At Tiffany's

Breakfast At Tiffany's is one of the best rom-coms of all time. Still, modern audiences cannot get through the movie without wincing every time Mickey Rooney's incredibly racist portrayal of an Asian man is on the screen. Even in 1961 this should have been called out and left out of the movie. It's not just a bad accent, it's a very offensive one,

Surfing The Tidal Wave In Die Another Day

There are a lot of ridiculous moments in the James Bond franchise. Most of them are excusable, especially from the Roger Moore-era movies. The one scene that really isn't is when the Pierce Brosnan version of Bond para-surfs on a giant tidal wave. The CGI alone is offensive, even if we can suspend reality long enough for the ride.

The Hookup In Big

The Tom Hanks' classic Big plays out like a weird rom-com at times. It's unsettling at the least when you think about the real age difference between the characters. That's all we really need to say here.

Quentin's Cameo In Pulp Fiction

Quentin Tarantino is one of the best filmmakers of his generation and Pulp Fiction is his masterpiece. Still, the scene that he is in, when he repeatedly uses a racial slur as he sips coffee is extremely obnoxious and completely unneeded. The bit about his wife and the coffee is fantastic, but everything after that should have just been cut.

Regina George's Death In Mean Girls

Why does Regina George need to die at the end of Mean Girls? It's such a weird exclamation point at the end of the movie that feels very unnecessary. She's been disgraced and disregarded, with good reason, does she really deserve to die? It really takes away from one of the best movies 2000s.

The God Of War In Wonder Woman

There is no question that the DCEU had a lot of problems really coming together and a great example of everything that was wrong with the now-rebooted franchise is adding scenes like Wonder Woman's battle with the God Of War at the end of the first Wonder Woman movie. It's just not needed. The movie could have ended before it and been an almost perfect superhero movie, instead, it just goes one step too far and almost gets ruined because of it.

The Rocket Launcher In Falling Down

Micheal Douglas' performance in Falling Down is amazing. The movie, for the most part, is fantastic. Sadly, what starts out as a very grounded yet terrifying look into one man's breakdown reaches the point of absurdity when he suddenly decides he needs to use a rocket launcher to get his point across. From a realistic movie to a cartoon in moments.

The Pictures At The End Of Crazy, Stupid, Love

Crazy, Stupid, Love goes from super fun to disturbing in the very last moments of the movie when Jessica, played by Lio Tipton gives Cal racy photos of herself. She is Cal's babysitter! Who thought that was a good way to end the movie?

The Explanation At The End Of Unbreakable

There are times when people are blown away by writer and director M. Night Shyamalan and there are other times he leaves everyone shaking their heads. The explanation of how everything worked in Unbreakable is the latter. We got, man, you don't need to bang us on the end with what it all means.

9/11 In Remember Me

One of the weirdest endings to a movie has to be the final scene of Remember Me. Everything romantic that has happened in the movie is rendered moot when it is revealed that Tyler (Robert Pattison) dies in the World Trade Center attack on 9/11. What? Why would anyone think that added anything to the story? So weird.

Nuking The Fridge In Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull

Okay fair enough, we can hear you saying Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull isn't a good movie. And you're right, it's not. But we just had to include the famous "Nuke the Fridge" scene because it makes a bad movie even worse and other than the weird choice of an ending involving aliens the "Nuke the Fridge" moment came when the movie still held promise.

Explaining Love In Interstellar

Interstellar is an awesome that asks at least as many questions as it answers. Why then did director and writer Christopher Nolan include such a hacky scene explaining the meaning of love? The world may never know.

Boot camps and other military training scenes have been part of Hollywood movies for a long time. Some of the most intense scenes in film history have some from such scenarios and so we've decided to make a list of some of the most iconic examples of these scenes. Our list of the most intense military training scenes in film history,

G.I. Jane

Demi Moore went through a ton of training in real life to pull off her starring role in G.I. Jane. The movie tells the fictional story of the first woman to go through Navy SEAL training and it's as intense as a movie can get. Though the movie didn't perform well at the box office, you have to appreciate the dedication Moore put into the role.

Heartbreak Ridge

You have to admit, having Clint Eastwood play a military instructor is perfect casting, and so it makes sense he would cast himself in his own movie, Heartbreak Ridge. Eastwood is awesome as a gunnery sergeant sent to clean up a ragtag unit of slackers. It's classic Eastwood.

Tigerland

Tigerland was one of the biggest bombs of director Joel Schumaker's career and that's too bad because it's actually a great movie. Colin Farrell plays a Vietnam-era draftee who is opposed to the war and does everything he can to be a troublemaker in his training for the war. The result is a lot of incredibly harrow scenes throughout his training and makes for an amazing movie about military life,

Top Gun

Top Gun is a little different because it's not about boot camp or other military training movies, it's about pilots trying to become the best of the best in high-level naval aviation. That doesn't diminish the intensity of the training, however, it only enhances it. It's become one of the most iconic military movies of all time as a result.

An Officer And A Gentleman

In An Officer And A Gentleman, Lou Gossett, Jr. plays the epitome of a strict, no-nonsense drill sergeant. He's particularly hard on one of his trainees, played by Richard Gere, in this genre-defining military training movie. It's a romance movie at its heart, but some of the most memorable scenes are the military scenes.

The Tuskegee Airmen

HBO's 1995 movie The Tuskegee Airmen has a stacked cast that includes Laurence Fishburne, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Courtney B. Vance, Andre Braugher, Cuba Gooding Jr., and John Lithgow. It's appropriate to have such a cast when telling the true story of the real-life Tuskegee Airmen, the first Black pilots in the U.S. Military. It's a hard road for all the trainees and this movie pulls no punches in telling the difficult, sad, and eventually triumphant story.

Captain America: The First Avenger

Even the Marvel Cinematic Universe has dipped its toes into military training movies. In Captain America: The First Avenger, audiences get to see a pre-Captain America Steve Rogers go through his early military training and it plays for both laughs and for inspiration as the undersized Rogers does all he can to succeed, despite the odds (and everyone around him) being against him.

Mulan

In both the 1998 animated movie and the 2020 live-action remake, Mulan features a few cool training scenes as the titular character, under the guise of being a man, learns how to fight in ancient imperial China. It's a different take on training, for a few obvious reasons, but both movies have great sequences.

Glory

Glory, which tells the story of one of the very few all-Black regiments in the Civil War, is one of the best war movies ever made. And that starts with the training sequences that are as intense as any movie, given the subject matter and what you would expect of an all-Black regiment being trained by white officers in the 1860s.

Full Metal Jacket

You simply can't make this list without including Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece Full Metal Jacket. The opening third of the movie features one of, if not the, most intense example of military training in Hollywood history. Led by real-life former drill instructor R. Lee Ermey, the first act of the movie is simply incredible for many reasons, including its realism.

Starship Troopers

1997's Starship Troopers was a box office bomb that was actually pretty great. The Paul Verhoeven-directed film was misunderstood at the time and has developed a strong cult following in the decades since. It also has a great training sequence and being set in the future, it's a sequence that sets it apart from a lot of the other movies on this list.

Beasts Of No Nation

Beasts Of No Nation is one of the hardest movies to watch that you'll ever see, but one of the best movies set in Africa. It's truly not for the faint of heart. The training scenes are not conventional, as training an army of child soldiers isn't conventional, and that makes the scenes all the more intense and ultimately heartbreaking.

Stripes

We had to include some lighter movies on this list, right? Stripes is one of the funniest movies of its era and yet, it still manages to pull off some intense army training scenes that ultimately includes the hapless unit's drill sergeant getting blown up. So that's pretty intense! And hilarious.

Taps

1981's Taps is set in a military school for teenagers and features a monster cast in some of their earliest roles including Sean Penn, Giancarlo Stanton, and Tom Cruise. It doesn't feature a ton of training scenes, but there are a few that add to the tension of the movie before some of the kids end up using that training for sinister purposes.

Jarhead

2005's Jarhead, directed by Sam Mendes, is based on the true story of a marine in the first Gurl War and features some of the most intense military training scenes ever put on film. Not only does the recruit (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) go through Marine boot camp, but also through sniper school, which is even more intense as only a fraction of the class make it all the way through.

The Dirty Dozen

There are few war movies as classic as The Dirty Dozen. In the movie, Lee Marvin's character is put in charge of a unit of misfits and rule-breakers that he must mold into a crew capable of pulling off a mission no one else is interested in doing. He does that, of course, with a lot of serious training.

The Recruit

While The Recruit isn't about military training, per se, the CIA recruitment training isn't all that different in many respects, so it deserves a spot on this list. Instead of the hard-nosed drill sergeant, it's an equally hard-nosed recruit trainer played by al Pacino putting his pet project, played by Colin Farrell through some intense training.

Private Benjamin

Private Benjamin, starring Goldie Hawn in one of her best roles is a silly movie, in all the best ways. When Judy Benjamin (Hawn) loses her husband on their wedding night, she is more or less tricked into joining the army and hilarity ensues. Like other military comedies of its ilk, it somehow shows the lighter side - and the harder side - of boot camp.

Hacksaw Ridge

Director Mel Gibson may have a problematic history in Hollywood, but it's hard to deny that he really knows how to tell a story. Hacksaw Ridge is the true story of Desmond Doss, a Seventh-Day Adventist, and conscientious objector joining the army during World War II and eventually being awarded the Medal of Honor for his service as a medic in the war. The first half of the movie includes his training as a medic before joining his unit in the Pacific Theater.

The Boys in Company C

Though not as famous as some of the other movies on this list, The Boys in Company C is a great movie about boot camp during the Vietnam era. The movie starts with "the boys" going through some of the most brutal training you can imagine and though the movie is filled with silly stereotypes, the training scenes are still excellent.

Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump might not be the first movie that comes to mind when you think of intense training scenes, but it's got them! Gump and Bubba go through training for the war together and become great friends, of course. It also somewhat cynically shows Gump as the perfect recruit because of his below-average intelligence, which isn't really fair, but still makes for some great moments.

Top Gun: Maverick

Just like it's predecessor, Top Gun: Maverick features some incredible flight-training scenes in preparation for the final attack of the movie. This time, the trainer is Maverick as he takes no quarter on his trainees in getting them ready for the attack.

Biloxi Blues

The 1988 Mike Nichols-directed Biloxi Blues is based on the semi-autobiographical play by Neil Simon telling his story about boot camp during World War II. While it is definitely a comedy, there are some very intense and downright terrifying moments in the movie between the recruits and their drill sergeant played by Christopher Walken.

American Sniper

There is nothing harder in the military than Navy SEAL training (also known as BUD/S training). Perhaps the best depiction of that training comes in American Sniper when Chris Kyle, played by Bradley Cooper, does the training before becoming a sniper. You feel every bit of how intense the training really is as you watch Kyle and his fellow recruits suffer through it.

The Inspection

Writer and director Elegance Bratton brings his own life story to the big screen as a gay man going through boot camp in the U.S. Marines. Boot camp is hard for anyone, but it's even more complicated for gay men seeking acceptance and recognition as Bratton so elegantly shows in the movie.

Major Payne

Okay, okay, before you roll your eyes too much here, yes, Major Payne is a silly movie, and no, it's not technically military training as Payne (Damon Wayans) is training kids. But - it does show, in a completely over-the-top way, a somewhat realistic, if cartoony, version of a boot camp drill sergeant.

Zero Dark Thirty

Most of the movies on this list are of boot camp or other general military training, Zero Dark Thirty is unique in that it shows the training for one specific mission - the mission to take about Osama bin Ladan. It still very much belongs on this list as the training scenes are every bit as intense as any boot camp scene can be, and it's an incredible look at the ongoing training members of the military go through even after they are deep into their careers.

Men Of Honor

Men of Honor is the true story of the first African-American master diver in the U.S. Navy. It stars Cuba Gooding, Jr. as Master Chief Petty Officer Carl Brashear, who leaves the farm in Kentucky in 1949 without much of an education and goes through some of the most intense training in the Navy, all while dealing with the prejudices you'd expect to see in a movie about this era.

Basic

If we're honest, Basic from 2003 isn't the best movie on this list. It might just be the worst, but it still has some pretty great training scenes, as the title of the movie implies. Should you seek it out? Probably not, but if you come across it and enjoy movies about military training, you might like it.

Cherry

2021's Cherry, directed by the Russo Brothers and starring Tom Holland as Cherry is more about the post-military life of a soldier suffering from PTSD and the crimes he commits. It does feature some great training scenes in the beginning though.

The D.I.

You may not be familiar with The D.I., but it is one of the defining movies of its genre. The movie features Dragnet star Jack Webb as a no-nonsense drill sergeant that in many ways is the template for how those roles have been played since The D.I. came out in 1957. It's not the best movie in its genre, but you can't deny it's influence.

In the Army Now

We wouldn't have a complete list without including the Pauly Shore "classic" In The Army Now. Sure, it's as dumb as you would expect from a Pauly Shore vehicle, but the training scenes are actually pretty decent, all things considered.

There are a lot of great war movies out there, and a lot about military life. Movies about the Navy are especially interesting because there is such a tremendous diversity of what is told on the big screen. Whether it's life as a pilot, a SEAL, or on a 19th-century ship, the stories are endless and endlessly interesting. Still, we managed to cut it down to 32 of the best movies about the Navy on this list. 

The Hunt For Red October

While The Hunt For Red October's main character is Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin), a CIA analyst, he's a former Naval officer who finds himself in the midst of a submarine dispute and audiences get a broad look at navy life. Not only do we see U.S. aircraft carriers and submarines, but we get the Soviet side also, making it a great Navy movie. 

Sand Pebbles

1966's Sand Pebbles is an oft-forgotten epic starring Steve McQueen and Richard Attenborough. While most war movies of the era were about World War II, Sand Pebbles takes place in the inter-war period in China. The director, Robert Wise, is mostly famous today for the musicals West Side Story and The Sound of Music, he proves here he can direct a heck of a Navy movie too. 

Greyhound

One thing that always makes a military movie interesting is an under-explored aspect of life or war. 2000's Greyhound is a great example of that, as a visceral depiction of one of the U.S. Navy's missions during World War II escorting ships across the Atlantic to the U.K. and the European theater. Tom Hanks plays the captain of a Navy Destroyer leading the mission. 

Crimson Tide

Life on a nuclear submarine is stressful for everyone, and none more so than for those charged with commanding the vessel. Crimson Tide puts viewers in that hot seat with a story about the struggle of two well-meaning officers, the captain played Gene Hackman, and his number two, played Denzel Washington, as they disagree over a communiqué to launch their missiles.  

Midway (2019)

The reviews for 2019's Midway were middling, but that's not fair. While it's not a perfect movie, it is remarkable historically accurate by most accounts and it's exciting from start to finish. The CGI is a little cheesy, but it's still a gripping movie about arguably the most important battle in the Pacific Theater and the one that turned the tide of the war toward the Allies. 

Das Boot

It's been praised not only as a great war movie but one of the best movies of all time. The German Das Boot is harrowing, claustrophobic, and simply brilliant in its visceral depiction of life on a German U-boat in World War II. It was one of the most dangerous jobs in the war, and the viewer feels just how hard and terrifying it could be. 

The Final Countdown

Released a few years before Top Gun and made with the full cooperation of the Defense Department, 1980's The Final Countdown holds up remarkably well decades later. The special effects are extremely dated, but the shots of the aircraft carrier, the planes, and the rest of the sets are excellent, as are the stars in it, notably Martin Sheen and Kirk Douglas. It's an unrealistic story of time travel, but it's very fun. 

Apocalypse Now

Capt. Willard (Martin Sheen) in Apocalypse Now is an army officer, but he's being taken up the river by a Navy river patrol boat. What makes that interesting is that we normally think of the Navy out on the high seas, fighting other ships on the ocean or with planes in the air. Rarely do we get a glimpse of life on something like a river patrol boat. It's a miracle the movie was even made, given the disastrous production issues it faced. 

Dunkirk

Just as in the real-life story, Dunkirk involves multiple branches of the British armed forces. We see the army on the beach and the Royal Air Force in the air, and we also see not only the actual Royal Navy, led on the beach by Commander Bolton (Kenneth Branagh), but we also see all the civilian boats pressed into service by the Navy in the famous evacuation. 

Tora! Tora! Tora!

Though it's likely the most well-known these days, Pearl Harbor is not the only movie to tell the story of the most infamous day of the 20th for the U.S. Navy. Indeed, the best just might be 1970's Tora! Tora! Tora! starring an ensemble cast of American and Japanese actors, showing both sides of the attack. 

Run Silent, Run Deep

Submarine movies are always tense and one of the best, Run Silent, Run Deep from 1958, has all all the tension you'll ever need in a movie. There is tension within the ranks, there is tension in the crew as they are attacked, and there is tension that comes with the claustrophobic nature of submarine warfare. It takes a special breed of Navy member to serve on a sub, that's for sure.

The Caine Mutiny

The Caine Mutiny has a couple of unique aspects to it. One, it was rare in the years right after World War II for a movie to depict a veteran of the war as anything but heroic, and two, Humphrey Bogart essentially plays the bad guy. It makes for a great movie. 

Top Gun

There may have never been a better Navy recruitment tool than Top Gun. The massive hit, starring Tom Cruise as a Naval aviator, is a timeless movie that is still beloved today and depicts life in the Navy as pretty darn awesome, yet always on the edge of serious danger. It takes your breath away. 

Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World

Hailed by historians and film critics alike Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World is one of the best movies about Naval life in the Napoleonic Wars ever. Praised for its realism and its battle tactics, the movie is as gripping as it is accurate in its story about the HMS Surprise and its captain, Jack Aubrey (Russell Crowe). 

Under Siege

Say what you want about the ridiculousness of any Steven Seagal movie, but Under Siege is pretty darn awesome. Tommy Lee Jones absolutely chews up the scenery with his over-the-top and fantastic performance as the bad guy and the movie set and filmed on one of the most important battleships in the history of the U.S. Navy, the USS Missouri.  

A Few Good Men

The officer being court marshaled in A Few Good Men is a Marine, but the lawyers are all JAGs - Judge Advocate General - in the United States Navy. The movie is more about life as a JAG, specifically Tom Cruise's character, as it is about the actual court marshal, though Jack Nicholson steals the show with his performance as the colonel on trial.  

Mutiny On The Bounty (1935)

There have been three epic movies about the mutiny on the HMS Bounty in 1789. The best of the three has to be the first though, 1935 Mutiny on the Bounty starring Clarke Gable as the leader of the rebellion, Fletcher Christian, and Charles Laughton as the dastardly Captain Bligh. It won best picture and while it's not all that historically accurate, it's a Navy classic. 

Top Gun: Maverick

Producing a sequel to 1986's Top Gun was a bold decision. So many things could've been wrong, but Top Gun: Maverick certainly did not disappoint. While it has a lot of the same beats as the first movie, the incredible flying scenes make it even more breathless than the original film and it's every bit as good, updated for a modern Navy. 

American Sniper

Naval servicemen don't only fight on the sea, of course. The Navy SEALs are legendary for their ground operations. One of the most famous SEALs is Chris Kyle, dubbed "the most lethal sniper in U.S. military history" by the book that made his story known and the movie it is based on starring Bradley Cooper as Kyle. It doesn't shy away from the glory, or the tragedy of Kyle's life. 

G.I. Jane

There are very few movies about women in prominent positions within the Navy, and G.I. Jane set out to change that. The result is mixed, it's a decent movie, but far from great. The story told, and Demi Moore's performance is the best part of it. She was dedicated to the role in a fictional account of the first woman accepted to SEAL training and got in tremendous shape for the movie to make it as realistic as possible. 

The Right Stuff

What does a movie about the early days of NASA have to do with the Navy? Well, a lot, especially considering Alan Shepard (Scott Glenn) was the first American in space and a Naval aviator. Another astronaut from the Mercury Seven portrayed in the movie was Wally Schirra (Lance Henriksen), who was also a Naval officer. 

Hot Shots!

Sometimes you just need a good laugh and Hollywood history is full of movies and TV shows sending up military life. One of the funniest has to be Hot Shots! which is, at its heart, a parody of Top Gun. It touches on other aspects as well, so it counts here! 

The Bridges At Toko-Ri

The Korean War is often overlooked by Hollywood, with the notable exception of MASH, of course. Even more overlooked is the Navy's contribution to the conflict. The Bridges at Toko-Ri is the rare exception here, telling the story of Navy pilots taking on a harrowing mission to bomb bridges in North Korea. 

Lone Survivor

Lone Survivor is a very hard movie to watch. It's the devastating true story of SEAL Marcus Luttrell, played by Mark Wahlberg. During a mission in Afghanistan in 2005 Luttrell was the only member of his SEAL team to survive an ambush by Taliban fighters. It's as harrowing as a war movie can be. 

Zero Dark Thirty

While Zero Dark Thirty is partially about the CIA's hunt for Osama Bin Laden, the movie also includes extensive scenes with the SEAL Team 6, led by characters played by Joel Edgerton and Chris Pratt. It's a fascinating look into the preparation for their raid of Bin Laden's compound and his eventual death. 

The Enemy Below

The Enemy Below is a rare example of showing both sides of a conflict. On one side is Robert Mitchum, playing a U.S. Destroyer captain, and on the other is Curt Jurgens as the captain of a German U-boat. Both are skilled at their jobs as they play a cat-and-mouse game trying to sink each other in this extremely entertaining and exciting movie. 

An Officer And A Gentleman

It might be a stretch to call An Officer and a Gentleman a surprise hit, but it was huge when it was released in 1982. It tells the story of, well, an officer in the Navy (Richard Gere) going through Officer Candidate School in the Navy with the late Louis Gossett, Jr. as his tough-as-nails instructor, while dating a new girlfriend (Debra Winger). Gossett won an Oscar for one of the best performances of his career. 

They Were Expendable

The John Wayne-led They Were Expendable is an old-fashioned war movie in the best way possible. Directed by the legendary John Ford, it tells a fictionalized version of a real PT boat that fought the Japanese in the Philippines in the earliest days of the war, in 1942. If you love movies about the Navy, and you love old movies, this one has it all. 

In The Navy

If anything, you can argue there are too few great comedies about the Navy. The Army has its fair share, but it's pretty thin for the sailors. One great exception is the ridiculous In The Navy starring Abbott & Costello. Sure, it's certainly dated, but it's still pretty darn funny. Abbott & Costello are their usual ridiculous selves and there are some great moments of hilarity any sailor would appreciate. 

Sink The Bismarck!

The sinking of the German battleship Bismarck by the British early in World War II was a major event that began to set the tone for the rest of the war, especially on the high seas. The movie, appropriately called Sink the Bismarck!, tells the (mostly) true story of the hunt for, and battle with, the Bismarck, which at the time was the most formidable ship on the world's oceans and it's sinking pretty much relegated the German Navy to fighting a submarine war, with few surface ships. 

Men Of Honor

Cuba Gooding, Jr. stars in Men Of Honor alongside Robert De Niro. Gooding plays the real-life Carl Brashear who becomes the first Black master diver in the Navy after President Harry Truman desegregated the armed forces. De Niro plays his tough but fair instructor who, despite being told to make sure Brashear didn't pass the course, is impressed with Brashear and makes sure he does pass. It's a powerful statement on race within the Navy and a movie well worth checking out. 

Against The Sun

2015's Against The Sun flew under the radar as a straight-to-streaming release, but it's an underrated movie. It tells the true story of a Navy flight crew who was forced to crash land in the ocean. They survived for an astounding 34 days, but it wasn't easy and the movie depicts the hardships and horrors vividly. 

Mistakes happen. We're all human, including the most talented people in Hollywood, and we all make them. Given how huge some productions are, and the coordination it takes to make a big Hollywood movie, it's actually amazing more mistakes don't happen. When they do sneak through into a final product, you can be sure people will talk about them, so here are some of the errors we're still thinking about, even years later. 

Pretty Woman's Ever Changing Breakfast

One of the most famous continuity errors in Hollywood history has to be the now-infamous breakfast scene in Pretty Woman. When Vivian (Julia Roberts) sits down for breakfast, she picks up a croissant and starts to eat it. A couple of seconds later, the scene cuts back to her and she takes a bite of a...pancake. Then after another cut, she takes the same bit of a clearly different pancake. 

Han's Hands In The Empire Strikes Back

Han Solo (Harrison Ford) being frozen in carbonite is one of the most iconic scenes in film history, and yet, there is something that just doesn't make sense. When Han is led to the machine and lowered into it, his hands are tied at the wrist in front of him and his arms are tied to his side. When his frozen body emerges, his hands are separated at his side. 

Oppenheimer Flags With Too Many Stars

Even Best Picture winners can have mistakes, but this one, as some fan theories pose, may have been intentional. In one scene, Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy). In one scene in the movie, Oppenheimer is being cheered on by people waving American flags that have 50 stars on them, but in 1945, when the scene takes place, there were only 48 stars on the flag. Some have argued that this was intentional on director Christopher Nolan's part, as the story is being told by Oppenheimer in the future. 

The Octopus In The Goonies

The Goonies is a classic, and one line has confounded viewers for decades. At the end of the movie as the kids are recounting their adventures to the reporters, Data (Ke Huy Quan) tells them that "the octopus was really scary." What octopus you might ask? Well, in a deleted scene the Goonies do encounter an octopus, but it was cut from the final version. 

The Fake Baby In American Sniper

Practical effects can make things look more realistic, or, as in the case of a swaddled baby in American Sniper, very fake. In one scene Bradley Cooper holds his character's "baby" in his arms, clearly using a level to move the prop and make it look real. 

Dorothy's Black Shoes In The Wizard Of Oz

Everyone would agree that Dorothy's ruby slippers in The Wizard Of Oz are among the most iconic movie props in history, they are even in the Smithsonian. Yet, in the scene where she is picking apples, she's wearing ordinary black shoes. 

The Holdovers Has Modern Cars

The Holdovers was one of the best movies of 2023, though it was set in 1970 and 1971. Whenever a movie is filming exterior shots for period pieces, there is a risk of missing something in the background, and in The Holdovers, it was modern cars parked on the side of the road in Boston. 

Braveheart Car

Braveheart doesn't have the best reputation for accuracy among historians, but even the most stringent critic can forgive the fact that for a brief moment, really no more than a single frame, there is clearly a car behind the Scottish soldiers. 

Jacob's Moving Tattoo In Twilight

This one seems pretty easy to mess up, and it's fairly minor, but still. In the Twilight series, Jacob (Taylor Lautner) has a tattoo that migrates up and down his arm. The tat, obviously a temp for the movie, starts high on his shoulder but later is closer to his bicep. This is a little pedantic, sure, but you can also be sure that people who watch the movie over and over notice it every time. 

The Dark Rises...And Misspells Things

I before E, except after C and in sounding like...heist. We'll be the first to admit that the English language has some strange rules that don't always apply, which is why it's easy enough to excuse the crew on The Dark Knight Rises for misspelling the word "HEIST" in a newspaper headline, spelling it "HIEST." 

The Klutzy Storm Trooper In Star Wars

One of the most infamous movie mistakes comes from one of the biggest movies of all time. The case of the klutzy stormtrooper in the original Star Wars is one of the most inadvertently funny moments in Hollywood history. It's so funny that later versions of the movie added in a sound effect to draw attention to the mistake. 

The Ben-Hur Wrist Watch

1959's Ben-Hur is one of the great epics from Hollywood's golden age. The huge set pieces and hundreds of extras make for an amazing watch. With all that going on, especially in the film's famous chariot race scene, it's understandable that the crew would miss that one of the actors driving a chariot was wearing his wristwatch. 

Van Ant-Man And Giant Ant-Man

Even blockbusters with huge budgets sometimes overlook stuff. Case in point: Avengers: Endgame. The end of Endgame is one of the greatest moments in the history of the MCU, it's an epic battle that includes every Avenger battling Thanos and his army. It's so big, that there are even two Ant-Mans. One Ant-Man is busy trying to hotwire his van, but when it cuts to the wide shot of the battle, there is giant Ant-Man battling it out with his Avenger buddies in the background. Oops. 

De Niro To Dummy In Casino

Martin Scorsese's Casino is an amazing movie, but there is one thing that eagle-eyed viewers catch every time they watch it. In the scene when Robert De Niro's character's car is blown up in an attempt to kill him, there is a cut just moments before the explosion where the actor has clearly been replaced by a dummy. At least no De Niros were hurt in the making of the film. 

Cardboard Cut-Out In Three Men And A Baby

This one goes back decades. For years, there were even rumors of a ghost on the set of Three Men and A Baby when a cardboard cut-out prop was left in the wrong place on set. The prop, seen behind a curtain in a scene with Ted Danson was clearly not supposed to be there, and in the days before we all had the ability to freeze-frame everything, the rumor spread like wildfire. 

Bullet Holes In Pulp Fiction

While Pulp Fiction certainly plays with time and reality in some ways, one way Quentin Tarantino probably didn't mean to is with the bullet holes in the wall of the apartment at the beginning after Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) shoots Brett (Frank Whaley) but before he gets shot at. If you look closely, you can see there are suddenly holes in the wall behind Jules, holes that wouldn't be there until Brett's friend shoots at Jules. 

Clueless Car Crash

Cher (Alicia Silverstone) and her friends are not very good drivers in Clueless. While taking her driver's exam in her brand new Jeep, Cher attempts to change lanes and sideswipes a parked car, taking off her side mirror. Literally moments later, she pulls the Jeep over and the mirror is miraculously back where it belongs. It's a Beverly Hills miracle. 

An Explosive Gas Canister In Gladiator

Period pieces, especially those set in ancient times, are susceptible to missing more modern objects in the frame. Take one of the best ever, Gladiator for example, when a chariot crashes at the Coliseum and a gas canister is exposed, hidden underneath, presumable to help propel the prop. 

A Car In The Shire In LOTR: Fellowship Of The Ring

J.R.R. Tolkien probably didn't intend for there to be cars in the Shire in Lord of the Rings, yet, there is one. In a wide shot, as Sam and Frodo are just starting out on their journey in Fellowship Of The Ring, in the top right of the screen, there is a clearly visible car driving down a dirt road in the background. If they had hitched a ride, it would've made for a much shorter trilogy. The car has since been edited out of later versions. 

Dorothy's Hair

Hairstyles can be especially tricky sometimes, and this is very evident in The Wizard of Oz as the length of Dorothy's pigtails changes a number of times throughout the movie. 

Keeping Them Separated In Raiders 

Sometimes, the mistakes we focus on aren't really mistakes, but they aren't perfect filmmaking, either. In Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) famously hates snakes. When he falls into the pit of snakes in the Egyptian desert, a cobra rises up to strike. Luckily for Indy, there is clearly (ahem, pun intended) a piece of plexiglass between him and the snake. It was edited out of later versions. 

Tran's Shirt In The Fast And The Furious

No one has ever called the Fast franchise high art, that's not the point. Like many films that are high art, however, there are mistakes. Like in the original The Fast And The Furious, when Tran is in his car ready to drag race. First, he's wearing a black t-shirt, then, right before the race starts, he's suddenly wearing a black tank top. It got really hot, really quickly. 

JFK's Clothes In Forrest Gump

Even in black and white, audiences know when the color of a costume changes. Or, in this case, two different videos of John F. Kennedy were used when Forrest Gump "met" the former president. His suit and tie are clearly two different colors, one darker than the other, in the clips. 

Let There Be Light In Gone With The Wind

During the Civil War, it was reasonable to expect to see gas lamps on the streets of Atlanta. What you wouldn't expect, or even know about, are electric lamps like the ones mistakenly used in the movie. Thomas Edison was only about 17 years old at the time. 

Horse Kick In The Last Samurai

Sometimes what is funny to us, was probably no laughing matter on the set. In a calvary scene in The Last Samurai, there is clearly a moment when an extra gets kicked by a horse as Tom Cruise's character rides in. Ouch. But funny. 

The Sweeper In Quantum Of Solace

Finding good extras is never easy. Take, for example, the case of the phantom sweeper in the James Bond movie Quantum of Solace. In a scene with Bond on a pier, there is an extra in the background meant to be a worker on the docks. He's sweeping with a big broom, but that's not enough to keep his job, as he's just sweeping air. 

The Cop In Two Places Batman Begins

In Batman Begins, either every cop looks exactly the same, or one actor was used to play two different cops, or in Christopher Nolan's Gotham City, one person can be in two places as once. Come to think of it, with Nolan involved, maybe this was on purpose?

The Cowboy Pirate Of The Caribbean

If you saw a cowboy and a pirate together at a Halloween party, you wouldn't think twice about it. When you see a pirate amongst the pirates in Pirates Of The Caribbean, you know it's a mistake, but that's what happened in Curse of the Black Pearl when it appears a crew member was in the wrong place, at the wrong time. 

A Parsec Is Not A Measure Of Time, Han! 

One of the all-time classic nerd-out moments comes in the original Star Wars when Han Solo famously tells Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness) that he did the Kessel Run in  "less than 12 parsecs!" Unfortunately for Han, parsecs are a measure of distance, so it tells Obi-Wan nothing about how fast the Millennium Falcon is. 

Buddy The Elf Isn't The Worst Dresser in Elf

Sure, Buddy's suit in Elf stands out among the throngs on the streets of New York, but in one scene, there is an extra with a way a worse sense of fashion, as he has buttoned his suit jacket to his overcoat. We've all had mornings like that though. 

Maverick's Sunglass In Top Gun

Tom Cruise made Ray Ban Aviators the hottest glasses of the 1980s by wearing them in the original Top Gun. Maverick's glasses, however, are magical, as one of the last scenes of movie, when he Iceman (Val Kilmer) confronts him to tell him he can be his wingman anytime, Maverick takes off the glasses. Then they hug, and Slider (Rossovich) picks Maverick up and, like magic, the glasses are back on. 

Where Is Ben Going In The Graduate?

Sometimes movies have to do things that automatically make the mistakes to be more cinematic. Like in The Graduate when Ben (Dustin Hoffman) is supposed to driving to Berkeley on the Bay Bridge, but he's clearly on the top deck, which only heads the other direction, towards San Francisco. Obviously, it makes for the better shot than with a deck above him in his awesome Alfa Romeo, but it's still the wrong way. 

Bradley Cooper has been splitting his time between directing and acting in recent years. Taking control of his career has worked, as his movies, such as A Star is Born (the fourth flick to share that title), have drawn acclaim and box office numbers. With so many hits under his belt, it’s hard to believe his acting career was being stifled at one point. The situation led to Cooper producing and starring in the war biopic American Sniper. The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 star revealed why he made the film with Clint Eastwood after being rejected by other directors.

At this point in the Nightmare Alley actor's career, auditioning is a rare occurrence. Bradley Cooper revealed to Mahershala Ali on Variety’s Actors on Actors that the last time he auditioned was to play Satan in a never-produced film. Starring in film series like The Hangover and Guardians of the Galaxy gave the director plenty of cache in Hollywood. But there was a time when the film industry was beginning to pigeonhole him. Cooper opened up about how American Sniper and Clint Eastwood changed that for him, saying:

The move paid off for Bradley Cooper, as both American Sniper and A Star is Born became tremendous critical and commercial hits. Both films led to the Hangover star scoring Best Actor and Best Picture nominations at the Oscars. The same might happen again as Bradley Cooper been receiving acclaim for Nightmare Alley and Licorice Pizza, with the latter movie also getting some nominations at the 79th Golden Glove Awards. Now we wait to see if either movie will be recognized as the upcoming Academy Awards. 

Bradley Cooper’s story proved once Hollywood sees a performer one way, it’s up to them to take charge and change the narrative. Having that experience had lasting effects as Lady Gaga revealed she has continued to seek Cooper’s acting career advice since completing A Star is Born.

Changing Hollywood’s perception of him allowed him to escape from being typecast. Licorice Pizza and Nightmare Alley are currently in theaters. Fans won’t get to see or hear Bradley Cooper until Thor: Love and Thunder arrives in theaters on May 6. Keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more news about Marvel movies, as well as what else Cooper has coming up.

If Clint Eastwood pursued an acting career alone, he’d be the most legendary gunslinger in the history of spaghetti westerns. But, he didn’t stop there. Over the past five decades, Eastwood has established himself as an impressive director that have mirrored his on-screen success. Between his projects such as American Sniper, The Mule or the upcoming Richard Jewell, the actor/director has primarily helmed movies that are “based on a true story”.

Ahead of the release of biographical drama Richard Jewell, CinemaBlend’s own Jeff McCobb sat down with Clint Eastwood to talk about this “true stories” trend. Check out what he said:

Sounds like it’s not as decisive of a choice than one might expect. During the Richard Jewell press day, Clint Eastwood explained that the slew of bio dramas have been brought to his attention and fallen into his lap rather than him seeking them out specifically. But, considering the director’s flair for a grounded movie, it checks out that writers adapting true events to film would approach Eastwood for the job.

Since the start of the century, Clint Eastwood started helming more realistic movies that could believably be “true stories” but were actually fiction. Space Cowboys, Mystic River or Million Dollar Baby could convince some of being actual stories. It was films such as this that likely led the director to branch out into telling true stories through film such as American Sniper, Sully, The 15:17 To Paris and The Mule. He has also moved into directing more exclusively.

Richard Jewell is about the Olympic Park bombing that happened in Atlanta, Georgia during the 1996 Summer Olympics. The movie is titled after the name of the security guard (played by Paul Walter Hauser) who found the bomb and alerted the authorities, saving many lives. However, he later became a suspect of the bombing for three months.

The Olympic Park bombing, which left one person dead and 100 injured has recently been subject to controversy over Olivia Wilde’s depiction of the late Atlanta-Journal Constitution reporter Kathy Scruggs in the movie. In the movie, the reporter who co-wrote the article that began suspicions over Jewell’s innocence is seen offering sex in exchange for information. The newspaper has called this “defamatory and damaging” to Scruggs’ character.

Richard Jewell also stars Sam Rockwell, Jon Hamm and Kathy Bates, who scored a Golden Globe nomination for her role earlier this week in the Clint Eastwood film as Richard’s mother Bobi Jewell. The movie is getting positive buzz from critics so far, with an 84% on Rotten Tomatoes.

The new Clint Eastwood bio drama opens this Friday, December 13 alongside other new releases: Jumanji: The Next Level, Black Christmas and Uncut Gems.

Clint Eastwood’s incredible career as an actor and director goes back almost seven decades, spanning from his early days in the spaghetti westerns directed by Sergio Leone to the modern-day masterpieces that he has directed. While many Hollywood stars have been both actors and directors, Clint Eastwood shines alone in his incredible success at both.

As a director, his movies have won multiple Academy Awards and he was won four individually, two for directing and two for Best Picture. He’s been nominated for another seven, including twice for his acting. Plus, he was once considered for the role of James Bond, despite being American.

A list of Clint Eastwood's best movies could stretch for miles, but I’ve picked out what I think are five of his best performances as an actor in movies he did not direct and five of his directing jobs, some of which he also acted in. Take a look.

Clint Eastwood As A Director

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1966)

You can’t talk about Clint Eastwood without starting with the Sergio Leone-directed “Man With No Name” trilogy, starting with A Fistful Of Dollars, followed by For A Few Dollars More, and wrapping up with the most famous, The Good, The Bad And The Ugly. All three were released between 1964 and 1966 in Italy, but were all released in sequential order in the United States in 1967. The trilogy launched Eastwood into superstardom after his gritty, tough-guy performances as “The Man With No Name.”

Kelly’s Heroes (1970)

Kelly’s Heroes is a great heist/World War II flick that is often overlooked in Clint Eastwood’s stellar career, but looking back on it, it exemplifies just how big he had become by the time it was released in 1970. Eastwood stars as Private Kelly who leads an all-star cast on a hunt for Nazi gold, a cast that includes Telly Savalas, Carroll O’Connor, Donald Sutherland, and Don Rickles. The movie is full of military satire and it brilliantly walks a fine line between serious and ridiculous brilliantly. The tank scene as they approach the Nazi gold sets that tone perfectly.

Dirty Harry (1971)

Just like the spaghetti westerns of the sixties, the five Dirty Harry pictures in which Clint Eastwood played the title character would be enough for any normal actor to enter the pantheon of greats. For Eastwood, they are definitely a huge part of his legacy. His delivery of some of the most classic lines in cinema history, like “Go ahead make my day” and “Do you feel lucky?” are as much a part of the lexicon as anything Shakespeare ever wrote!

Escape From Alcatraz (1979)

For a certain generation, Escape From Alcatraz is one of those movies that seemed to always be on cable TV, like the Shawshank Redemption of the late '80s and early '90s. Based on a true story (though not very accurately), Clint Eastwood stars as Frank Morris, a prisoner at Alcatraz that organized the most infamous escape from the country’s most notorious prison. Was it successful? The film’s ending is somewhat ambiguous in answering that question because the truth is a mystery, Morris and the others were never seen again, nor were their bodies ever found.

In The Line Of Fire (1993)

In The Line Of Fire is a little bit of a rarity in that it is a later-era Clint Eastwood movie that he starred in, but didn’t direct. In it, Eastwood is washed-up Secret Service agent who was on the Presidential detail when Kennedy was assassinated and thirty years later finds himself working on another Presidential detail in light of information that a serious threat is being made on the President’s life. The antagonist, a would-be assassin played brilliantly by John Malkovich, taunts Eastwood with the past until it all leads to a climatic showdown between the two.

Clint Eastwood As A Director

The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)

Clint Eastwood’s career as a director goes much further back than most people realize. While the Outlaw Josey Wales wasn’t the first film he directed, it was the one that really got his career as a director off the ground. It was a huge hit, wildly popular with the public and critics alike. Of course, Eastwood also stars in the movie as Josey Wales, a farmer hellbent on revenge for his wife’s killing by a Unionist during the Civil War.

Unforgiven (1992)

Unforgiven was a BIG deal. For starters, it marked Clint Eastwood’s return to the genre that first made him famous, both as an actor and as a director, the western. It was also a fantastic movie with top notch performances by Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, and Richard Harris. It is another revenge story with Eastwood, as Will Munny, going after a bounty set up by a group of prostitutes to avenge the beating of one of their own. For the film, Clint Eastwood won his first two Oscars, one for Best Picture and one for Best Director with this winner.

Million Dollar Baby (2004)

The second Oscar winner of Clint Eastwood’s directing career came for Million Dollar Baby. A deeply melancholy film, it tells the story of Eastwood as a washed up boxing trainer that gets one more shot with a gritty, down on her luck woman that wants to be a champion, played by Hilary Swank. It’s a tragic story and one that took years to make, as no studio initially wanted to make it. Eastwood proved them all wrong though, as the film pulled in four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress for Swank.

Letters From Iwo Jima (2006)

Letters From Iwo Jima is unique for a number of reasons. First, it’s an American movie that is almost entirely in Japanese. It is also the companion piece to Flags Of Our Fathers, which is the story of the Battle Of Iwo Jima from the America perspective while Letters From Io Jima is from the Japanese side. The two films were shot back to back in an incredibly ambitious project that you would expect from a younger, less accomplished director, not a 76-year-old will a huge bucketful of past laurels, like Eastwood. Sadly, neither movie did well at the box office, but no matter, just the ambitiousness and uniqueness of the two movies is worth seeking them out. Letters From Iwo Jima is definitely the better of the two, though both are excellent.

American Sniper (2014)

American Sniper is a movie that causes some division among viewers. In general, it has received rave reviews over the years and it was nominated for multiple awards, but it’s also pretty controversial, both for its subject matter and for Clint Eastwood’s filmmaking. The film stars Bradley Cooper as Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle, a veteran of the Iraq War who was killed by a fellow soldier in 2013, just a year before the movie was released. The movie found a groundswell of support from veterans both for Cooper’s portrayal and Kyle’s story. Love it or hate it, it’s incredible to think that even at age 84, Eastwood was still putting out masterful films like this, just as he is today.

The word “icon” is thrown around a lot in Hollywood, often about people that while great, may not deserve the moniker. Clint Eastwood deserves it. Maybe moreso than anyone else. His incredible career has spanned multiple generations and multiple genres and even at age 88, he doesn’t appear to be slowing down. As long as he isn’t yelling at empty chairs.

Bradley Cooper has been in the news a lot lately for learning to sing and speak differently for A Star is Born. However, it was the work he had to put in for another drama, American Sniper, that actually shocked his celebrity trainer Jason Walsh. Walsh revealed in a recent interview that he never believed the actor would be able to physically personify Chris Kyle in American Sniper. He said:

However, even though Jason Walsh never really believed that Bradley Cooper could get buff enough to capably play Chris Kyle, he told Vanity Fair that the two men got to work right away. Jason Walsh decided that a trap bar deadlift would be the lift they really honed in on along with to get him to a point where he could lift from the ground. Per Walsh:

Ultimately, Bradley Cooper has shown a propensity to exceed expectations in all kinds of different movie roles. If you've seen American Sniper, you should know that Bradley Cooper got to the point where he was able to do the trap bar lift with 425 pounds, but it took a slew of 60-90 minute two-a-day workouts where he put his body through the ringer to get there.

Most of the time, Jason Walsh says the studios come to him about training someone for a movie. They have to figure out a lot of weird stuff. An example he gives is when Emily Blunt had to wear that huge exoskeleton for Edge of Tomorrow and they had to figure out workouts to help with the weight she would be carrying while filming.

For Bradley Cooper, it was less about needing to be mobile and more about needing to look like Chris Kyle, a former Navy SEAL and sniper who wrote the book American Sniper is based on. Chris Kyle was a large guy, bulky, who was later killed taking a vet who suffered from PTSD and schizophrenia to a shooting range.

When American Sniper came out in 2015, it was a big hit and the movie even earned awards nods, including a nomination for both Best Picture and for Bradley Cooper as Best Actor at the Oscars. Cooper also one a Critics Choice Award and an MTV Movie Award for the gig.

So, it looks as if hard work paid off in that case. We'll have to wait and see if all the vocal work Bradley Cooper did ends up panning out for A Star is Born, as well.

Bradley Cooper's directorial debut, A Star is Born, shows off all the filmmaking chops we never knew he had -- along with his amazing ability to beautifully duet with Lady Gaga. It was a project that originally was set to be directed by Clint Eastwood, with Beyoncé as the star.

What became a missed opportunity for Clint Eastwood and Beyoncé as they moved on from A Star is Born became the career shift Bradley Cooper had been longing for. It came to Cooper just as he started working on American Sniper with Eastwood, who directed him in the 2014 film. That allowed Cooper to talk with the past director about how he wanted to go about A Star Is Born. In Cooper's words:

During a director roundtable with The Hollywood Reporter, Bradley Cooper said he'd always had a passion but didn't really feel like he was ready until A Star is Born came along. The film served as the perfect medium to explore the themes he'd been draw to, such as the effects of childhood trauma, a love story, and music of course. It wasn't about remaking a Hollywood classic for the fourth time, it was about finally saying what he wanted to on film.

Clint Eastwood passed on A Star is Born to focus on his other planned projects -- including his new film The Mule, with himself as both star and director. The idea to remake A Star Is Born under Warner Bros. might have been dropped or placed in the wrong hands, but Bradley Cooper stepped in with a specific vision for the film -- a vision that apparently came to him at least in part from a dream.

A Star is Born has been widely-praised, perhaps as one of the best films of the year, much due to Bradley Cooper's work and his decision to bring in Lady Gaga for the lead role. The film has already been nominated for quite a few Golden Globes, including Best Picture, and Best Director and Best Actor nods for Cooper.

There's no question the achievement will make its way to the Oscars this year, hopefully with a live performance from Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga. There's also no question the remake was placed in the right hands -- along with gifting the audiences with some incredible performances by its leads.

Last week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that for the first time in history, they would be working on crafting a category solely focused on achievement in popular film. Naturally, this drew the ire of the internet and film community, as this seems to be a move that rewards box office grosses over actual achievement. However, where some see a dark cloud over an already chaotic awards ceremony, there's also an interesting potential for a thought experiment.

For this hypothetical scenario, let's use the prism of history to see how this potential category could have played out in the last 10 years of Best Picture history. Operating on the popular presumption that this "Popular Oscar" is going to be a Best Picture-adjacent category, we can apply this assumption to the last decade of films that were nominated, minus one notable exception. The results are rather interesting, and definitely worth discussion, so here we go with 10 years worth of alternative Oscar history, as we retroactively hand out the awards for "Best Achievement in Popular Filmmaking."

2008 - Juno

While No Country For Old Men's Best Picture win feels like one of those wins that satisfied both the artistic and somewhat popular tendencies that Oscar voters tend to try and steer for, if there WAS an award for "Best Achievement in Popular Filmmaking," you can bet that Juno would have won it. A film that not only dominated the pop culture landscape during its awards qualifying run, but also brought Diablo Cody and Jason Reitman together for the first time, the indie hipster romantic dramedy built probably the most vocal fan base of all the films nominated that year. Also, the Best Original Screenplay win for Cody's script kind of tips towards the odds being in this one's favor.

2009 - The Dark Knight

In the context of this list, we've stayed mostly with the losers who were nominated for the highest honors of their year: Best Picture. And yet, when it comes to 2009's class of notables, none cast quite as impressive a shadow as The Dark Knight. Considering this is the film that, if you wanted to trace this issue to a starting point, began The Academy's various actions in the name of popularity, it's a no-brainer addition to the pack. This is the textbook case of a movie so popular that when "serious" awards bodies don't pay it enough attention, they're decried as too traditional. Christopher Nolan's best Batman movie is a true blend of artistic merit, and blockbuster thrills, sealing the deal on this film's hypothetical win in spades.

2010 - Avatar

When you're the biggest cinematic money maker of all time, the eyes of the world are going to be on you like a hawk. Already having done that once with his critical, commercial, and awards juggernaut Titanic, James Cameron somehow did it again when Avatar was released to the public. Now, while there's been debate about the story's originality, there's no question that the technical marvels that were on display. Plus, the film's IMAX 3D presentation helped revolutionize theatrical distribution. The way movies were made, and seen, was changed for the better, and with audiences flocking in droves to see it for themselves, no other film that year could match its appeal.

2011 - Inception

On this alternate timeline, Christopher Nolan is a previous "Best Achievement in Popular Filmmaking" winner, having already cemented his legacy after scoring on this award with 2008's The Dark Knight. We're guessing he would have won his second round in this very category with Inception. With another mix of blockbuster spectacle, seen through the prism of high art and concept, the box office juggernaut would have gone from its summer run into a very golden end, all thanks to Leonardo DiCaprio and his band of mind thieves.

2012 - The Help

The "Best Achievement in Popular Filmmaking" category would have been hard pressed to find another film as qualified for the win as The Help. Not only was it the highest performing nominee at the domestic market for 2012's top honors, but it also would have been a big win for diversity, with the female-centric story about race relations occupying a Goldilocks zone of Oscar prestige and public consciousness. Seeing as the film already had one nomination for Best Picture, and three nominations in the acting field, it would have been an easy trophy to hand out, in the name of awarding the film on its total merits, and public support.

2013 - Lincoln

It might surprise you to see that Steven Spielberg's Lincoln could beat something like, say, Django Unchained in the award for "Best Achievement in Popular Filmmaking." Or at least, it would until you break down the fact that Spielberg's long-gestating adaptation of Team of Rivals actually outgrossed Quentin Tarantino's spaghetti western tribute by a solid $20 million. Of course, it also helps that Spielberg is a known name with The Academy (moreso than Tarantino, even), and with Daniel Day Lewis' win for Best Actor clearly showing the film as an Oscar voter favorite, not all the fake blood in the world could have triumphed over this tale of the human spirit and political wrangling.

2014 - The Wolf Of Wall Street

2014 is one of those easy years to peg in this hypothetical category, as The Wolf of Wall Street would definitely have brought home the "Best Achievement in Popular Filmmaking" prize, as this Scorseseian madhouse of highly quotable nature was making waves with audiences as a raucous adventure through late stage Capitalism and excess that was just too fun to go home empty handed. It's hard to tell if Leonardo DiCaprio could have benefitted from this sort of attention, but it's not hard to see that the infamy and fond regard the film had gained through awards season paying off.

2015 - American Sniper

Birdman, or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) was a pretty surprising winner for the Best Picture honors at 2015's Oscar ceremony. Some folks scratched their heads, while others cheered out of supportive surprise. And yet, it felt like all the buzz surrounding that year's crop of films couldn't drown out the American public's slow, but eventually tremendous warming to Clint Eastwood's American Sniper. The tragic but inspiring true story of Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) and his life in and out of combat, its success at the box office, as well as the pedigree of Eastwood's directorial career, would have given this film a clear shot to winning the popular Oscar trophy.

2016 - Mad Max: Fury Road

If there are two films that highlight the more beneficial side to having an award like "Best Achievement in Popular Filmmaking" exist, The Dark Knight is the first, and Mad Max: Fury Road is the second. A huge winner in 2016's technical awards, capping off director George Miller's post-apocalyptic epic with a popular Oscar could have really blown the doors open for genre filmmaking at The Oscars. Considering the films that have preceded this most obvious winner, it wouldn't be a category of ill repute, and at this point the audience would probably be paying more attention to the popular pick rather than the Best Picture-crowned winner. Though, if anyone at Miller's age can make a film so progressive that it get the internet to agree it should have won, as well as a film so technically kick-ass that it makes most blockbusters look like LEGO fan films, then surely that's worthy of great notice.

2017 - La La Land

Right about now, Warren Beatty would have been vindicated, as his mistakenly reading La La Land as the Best Picture of 2017 would have merely been a swapping of envelopes between it and the real Best Picture of that year, Moonlight. While director Barry Jenkins' film would have still taken that top prize, Damian Chazelle's ode to jazz and Jacques Demy would have most definitely taken the popular trophy of the year. No other film would have come close to winning the hearts and minds of the world so effectively that for a time, everyone not only expected it to win Best Picture, they would have totally been chill with it. With Moonlight and La La Land firmly at the top of the ranks this time out, the two sides of the Oscar voting pool's rationale would be on full display, and all would have been right with the world.

2018 - Get Out

Here's an interesting thought: would The Shape of Water still have won the Best Picture prize if like "Best Achievement in Popular Filmmaking" was in play? The result we ended up getting would have probably still held in this alternative universe, but it would have more than likely still been a toss up between it and writer/director Jordan Peele's Get Out winning in the popularity race. Through almost a decade of this hypothetical history, The Academy would still more than likely not be over its genre bias, which would still result in the very Old Hollywood / progressive fable storytelling of Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor's successful script taking the top prize. But this is that third film that epitomizes the best case scenario of this category, as Jordan Peele's film would have two top notch Oscars under its belt, further emboldening him and his collaborators in future endeavors.

Clint Eastwood's American Sniper was a massive box office hit when it was released in 2015. However, at least one filmmaker has decided that a movie needs to be made in an attempt to tell the other side of the story. Egyptian director Amr Salama says he is in the early stages of a film project, which is currently going under the name Iraqi Sniper, which would focus on the character that Bradley Cooper's Chris Kyle is taking aim at in Eastwood's movie, an Iraqi sniper who goes by the name Mustafa in the film.

The character, which American Sniper called Mustafa, is based on an actual top Iraqi sniper who the US military called Juba. Not a lot is known about who the man actually was, but Amr Salama believes the character is complex and interesting enough to warrant a film, even if American Sniper had not been made.

Having said that, Amr Salama admits that seeing American Sniper was the catalyst for the idea. Salama says he hated the movie so much that it made him want to work on a different version of the same story. In addition to focusing on the character on the opposite side of the conflict, the tone of this film would also be different. Salama calls his movie an anti-war film, while he classifies American Sniper as pro-war, though director Clint Eastwood would disagree.

Interestingly, Iraqi Sniper may have one additional tie to American Sniper beyond its inspiration. Amr Salama tells The Hollywood Reporter that Sammy Sheik, the actor who played Mustafa in American Sniper, is currently attached to the project. It's certainly a casting decision that makes a lot of sense, as the actor is already familiar with the role. It will also make the film's opposing message resonate that much more with those who saw American Sniper.

While American Sniper was a pretty big deal when it was released, the film seems to have faded into the background since then. While it was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, it only went home with a single statue for sound editing. These days the thing that most people probably remember most clearly about the film is the scene where an obvious doll stands in for what is supposed to be an actual baby.

The director says that he hopes this new film is the next project of his to go into production, so he does appear to be serious about getting this alternate take in front of audiences. Clint Eastwood himself said that part of American Sniper's success was due to the fact that it put a human face on the conflict, so doing the same for those on the other side of the fight is certainly a worthy goal.

As long as war exists, there will always be filmmakers who try to attempt to capture its horror, and its glory. As the years press on and wars come and go, different filmmakers have endeavored to craft different war films that represent the tone and thought process of a given era. All Quiet on the Western Front framed WWI as a time of lost innocence, while The Longest Day presented the Second World War as an hour of glory against the Nazis. This trend has persisted, from the way Platoon dealt with Vietnam, to Courage Under Fire’s take on the first Gulf War.

Michael Bay’s 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi has been in theaters since this weekend, but represents only the latest in a long line of movies that have attempted to deal with the idea of war in a post 9/11 world. Some films about our most recent wars emphasize the personal effect it has on the men who fight it, while others focus on shaky politics and policies. All put together, these films coalesce into a narrative about the global warfare experience since the fall of the twin towers. Without further ado, here are the ten best films that have dealt with the concept of war and battle over the course of the last fifteen years. Let’s get going with number 10:

10. American Sniper

What happens when we examine the man behind a legend? That is exactly what Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper aims to do – pun completely intended. Focusing on the military career of Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper), the film portrays Kyle not just as an essential tool of the American war machine, but as a vulnerable man whose job slowly wears him down over time. Every time he pulls the trigger he saves a life, but he also chips away a little piece of his soul. It’s a film that honors the real life sniper’s legacy on the battlefield, but also draws attention to real issues faced by soldiers when they return home.

9. Beasts of No Nation

Unlike the other entries on this list, Beasts of No Nation has nothing to do with the western world, or the implications of 9/11. Set in a nondescript African civil war, the film follows a young boy named Agu (Abraham Attah) as he loses his command while fighting as a child soldier for a ruthless yet charismatic Commandant (Idris Elba). Beasts of No Nation remains important primarily because it's a reminder that many of the atrocities and horrors of the world are happening away from the public eye, and that areas of the world outside of the middle east are also engulfed in bloody conflict. No matter where you go, war remains the same.

8. Restrepo

While many films on this list can claim themselves as a "true story," none can even hold a candle to the genuine nature of Restrepo. A 2010 documentary, the film follows real filmmakers embedded with a platoon stationed in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan – the "deadliest place on earth." Restrepo strips away all of the gung-ho machismo one might expect from a Hollywood film and tells a real story about real Americans fighting for their lives in the closest thing to hell imaginable. Just be warned: it's not for the faint of heart.

7. Lone Survivor

Of all the films present on this list, Lone Survivor is the one that tells the most pure and noble tale of brotherhood on the battlefield. Concerned neither with politics nor policy, the films follows four-man team of Navy SEALs as they fight for their lives in the mountains of Afghanistan against an army of Taliban. Essentially one long firefight, the film's violence comes fast and gritty, with director Peter Berg pulling absolutely no punches. Based on a well-known true story penned by titular lone survivor Marcus Luttrell (Mark Wahlberg), the film honors the sacrifices made by these men in a grandiose manner without ever coming across as preachy.

6. Stop-Loss

Stop-Loss is an infuriating movie, and to know that it’s based upon real policies only amplifies that infuriation; it’s essentially the Big Short of war movies. Centering on war hero Brandon King (Ryan Philippe), the story struggles to fight back against the government and their unethical "stop-loss" policy, which allows them to enlistment contract and send them back to active duty involuntarily. As the walls close in around him, Brandon has no other choice but to try and leave his life behind in an effort to try and stay alive. Philippe – along with supporting actors Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt – does impeccable job of selling the effect that war can have on a soldier, but it’s the film’s subject matter that will get audiences fired up.

5. Green Zone

After so many years, it almost feels silly to think that the war in Iraq began due to a false narrative about the possibility of the country having weapons of mass destruction. Paul Greengrass’ Green Zone examines those ideas through the eyes of an American soldier named Miller (Matt Damon) who wants nothing more than the truth so he can understand why his brothers in arms are dying. Aside from possessing some solid action sequences, Green Zone continuously asks one very important question: why?

4. In The Valley of Elah

Although not directly concerned with politics or the war in Iraq, In the Valley of Elah is still a poignant movie about the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder. When retired military police officer Hank Deerfield (Tommy Lee Jones) starts looking into the disappearance of his veteran son Mike, he enlists the help of Detective Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron). As the case goes on, they begin to realize that Mike’s fellow soldiers may have something to do with his disappearance. In the Valley of Elah is a powerful war movie because it focuses less on the actual war, and instead highlights the darkly disturbing effects war can have on men who return home from the battlefield.

3. The Messenger

War is hell, and people die. We all know this grim fact, but no other post 9/11 war film has endeavored to explore the far-reaching impact of death quite like the 2009 film The Messenger. Starring Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster, The Messenger follows a pair of casualty notification officers as they deliver news to the loved ones of soldiers who died in battle in the Middle East. As the weight of the job begins to affect Will Montgomery (Foster), he soon finds solace in a widow whose husband died overseas. The Messenger is a powerful movie that reminds us that the effects of war resonate far beyond the battlefield.

2. Zero Dark Thirty

Kathryn Bigelow has a strong resume for tense, affecting films about the war in the Middle East. Her most recent war film, Zero Dark Thirty, deals with obsession of CIA analyst Maya (Jessica Chastain) as she hunts down Osama Bin Laden. The film spans years and highlights numerous real-world issues, such as American use of torture to extract information from prisoners, as well as the daring raid that finally took Bin Laden down. Pressure seemingly builds and builds as the story unfolds, unleashing all at once as Maya can finally sit down and rest when the 9/11 mastermind has been brought to justice. It's bittersweet as the audience begins to realize that her victory does not necessarily mean a happy ending for her character.

1. The Hurt Locker

If war truly is a drug, then no other film captures that theme better than Kathryn Bigelow’s 2008 thriller The Hurt Locker. Following a three-man explosive ordinance disposal team in Iraq, the film is a tense, two-hour, white-knuckle ride that tackles serious issues of death, camaraderie, and the thrill of battle. Perhaps the most poignant part of the movie comes during its final minutes, where we as an audience begin to understand how defusing bombs for years has warped Sergeant First Class William James’ (Jeremy Renner) mind. The Hurt Locker tells a heartbreaking yet exhilarating story that ultimately won Bigelow the Best Director and Best Picture Oscars in 2009 – and rightfully so.

This poll is no longer available.

In the internet age, piracy has become a significant part of the movie industry, with studios and different organizations regularly trying to find ways to stop the spread of illegal copies of feature films. As much effort as there’s been, however, still just about every major blockbuster finds itself being downloaded millions upon millions of times. But what title was downloaded the most in the year 2015? We now have the answer.

Variety has published a list of the most pirated movies of the year, and while titles like Inside Out, Minions and San Andreas failed to make the Top 10, you will certainly recognize all of the films. What got the number one spot? Read on and find out.

10. Kingsman: The Secret Service

Matthew Vaughn's Kingsman: The Secret Service was a significant surprise when it came out earlier this year. The R-rated comic book movie took on Fifty Shades of Grey the weekend of Valentine’s Day, and it still managed to be a box office and critical hit. Unfortunately, this success also gave it a lot of attention on the downloading front. Edging out the Will Smith/Margot Robbie thriller Focus by about four million downloads, the spy film was stolen 30,922,987 times before the end of 2015.

9. Terminator: Genisys

Audiences here in the United States weren’t ultimately too jazzed about the idea of going to see a brand new Terminator movie in theaters – with the film ultimately making only $89 million here at home – but evidently people were curious enough about it to illegally download a copy. Squeaking into the top 10 on this year’s list, Terminator: Genisys was stolen about 31,001,480 times. If the blockbuster does eventually get a sequel, it will be interesting to see how the numbers compare.

8. The Hobbit: Battle Of The Five Armies

Strangely, over the three years of release, The Hobbit movies slowly moved further and further back on this annual list. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was the most pirated film back in 2013, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug was ranked at number four, and now The Hobbit: Battle Of The Five Armies is positioned at number eight. What’s even stranger is that with a total of 31,574,872, the most recent film was far and away the one that was illegally downloaded the most.

7. Fifty Shades of Grey

Sam Taylor Johnson’s Fifty Shades of Grey inspired a great deal of curiosity amongst movie-goers – with people wondering exactly how far the sexual content would go – but obviously there were some people out there who didn’t want to actually go out to a theater and see the movie in public. This could be one explanation for the film’s high illegal download score, as the movie was stolen a grand total of 32,126,827 times, according to trade sources.

6. American Sniper

Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper is technically a 2014 movie, but it didn’t actually start a stir until it saw its theatrical release expand last January. Going from four theaters nationwide to 3,555, the movie became a massive hit, and ultimately made nearly $550 million worldwide. Despite the film not being a franchise blockbuster, the buzz had an effect on the torrent world as well. When all was said and done, American Sniper was downloaded a grand total of 33,953,737 times.

5. Mad Max: Fury Road

If there was any movie this year that truly demanded to be seen on the biggest screen possible, it was George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road. The action and the color just pop in the most spectacular way… but apparently people were just fine watching it on their computer monitors. When the tabulations were finished, the action film was illegally downloaded a total of 36,443,244 times. It’s a real shame, but I’m hoping that a good percentage of those people went to go see the movie at least once during its theatrical release.

4. Jurassic World

Before Star Wars: The Force Awakens rolled around, it was Colin Trevorrow’s Jurassic World that was the real cock of the walk in 2015 – breaking The Avengers opening weekend record and establishing itself as the third most successful film of all time. As you would imagine, this led to a hefty number of illegal downloads – the movie winding up with a score of 36,881,763. Obviously its position as a mega blockbuster made it a perfect candidate for this list, and we fully expect to see all sequels make this list in the future as well.

3. The Avengers: Age of Ultron

As you would expect, Marvel Studios movies have a good amount of annual history landing on this list. A few years ago it was Iron Man 3; in 2014 it was both Thor: The Dark World and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and now it’s The Avengers: Age of Ultron (with 41,594,159 illegal downloads). You’ll notice that Ant-Man didn’t make the Top 10 this year, but it’s always possible it could wind up ranking next year.

2. Furious 7

This past year saw many hits come and go from theaters, but James Wan’s Furious 7 was one of the first to arrive. Playing on the big screen back in April, the film set the box office on fire early in 2015… but that also means that pirates had a long amount of time to find it. To date, the film has been downloaded an impressive 44,794,877 times. It’s a big number, but not big enough for number one…

1. Interstellar

It’s kind of strange, but the film that was illegally downloaded the most times in 2015 wasn’t even a film that came out this year. Instead, it’s actually Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar with a total of 46,762,310. The movie didn’t actually rank last year (having just been released theatrically in late November and released on home video early in 2015), but the number of downloads is 15 million higher than last year’s list topper: Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street. What does that say about movie piracy in 2015? I’ll leave that for you guys to discuss in the comments below.

There may not be a more democratic way to see what movies people were interested in throughout 2015 than search results. It should be a strong indicator of the things that movie fans wanted to read about. Google has released their list of the most searched movies this year, and while most on the list won’t be surprising -- they were all successful films this year -- their order doesn’t match the box office totals.

Half of the Top 10 box office successes don’t even makethis list, while one of the films wasn’t even from this year. Check out the most searched for films of 2015. Are your choices on here?

10. Mad Max: Fury Road

Box Office Totals: $153,636,354 (Domestic)

Our Review:

"As crazy, thrilling, gorgeous and awesome as anyone could really hope, and guaranteed to be one of the best big-screen spectacles of the year."

9. Minions

Box Office Totals: $336,033,085

Our Review:

"In the end, Minions’ annoying tendencies are ultimately more than made up for by a luscious aesthetic, fast-paced energy, and plain old-fashioned silliness that you can’t help but fall for."

8. Avengers: Age of Ultron

Box Office Totals: $459,005,868

Our Review:

"Joss Whedon understands what makes these dysfunctional heroes tick, and there’s an immeasurable delight that comes with seeing them in action, together, on the big screen."

7. Inside Out

Box Office Totals: $356,461,711

Our Review:

"Inside Out has the exact same kind of old school Pixar magic that turned the company into the biggest modern name in animated feature films. It’s a perfect addition to the ever-growing legacy. It’s a phenomenal, touching and special piece of art, and fittingly a mind-blowing and emotional experience."

6. Pitch Perfect 2

Box Office Totals: $184,296,230

Our Review:

"I found this sequel to be fun, goofy and an overall crowd-pleaser. When it comes to prospective initiates, though, Pitch Perfect 2 might be a tough sell."

5. Furious 7

Box Office Totals: $353,007,020

Our Review:

"You're never given a milliseconds rest, and the entire blockbuster unfolds like an elongated music video to the most mainstream song you've never heard."

4. 50 Shades of Grey

Box Office Totals: $166,167,230

Our Review:

"Done well, Fifty Shades Of Grey could have introduced a mainstream audience to the intriguing world of BDSM...Instead Fifty Shades Of Grey never verges on the complex, and as a result is both painfully lame and tediously simplistic."

3. Straight Outta Compton

Box Office Totals: $161,197,785

Our Review:

"There’s a lot of story that needed to be pushed out in two-and-a-half hours, but rushing through the material leaves little opportunity to explore more emotionally charged moments in these men’s lives. [Y]ou can tell, despite its faults, that audiences will easily invest themselves in this story."

2. American Sniper

Box Office Totals: $350,126,372

Our Review:

"[T]he longer you wear American Sniper, the better it fits. Eastwood doesn’t flinch from the horrifying acts of war that took place during the Iraq War. But the movie shortchanges Kyle’s blood relatives in favor of the 'family' he fought and died for in the military."

1. Jurassic World

Box Office Totals: $652,270,625

Our Review:

"It’s not exceptional in any specific way, but it satisfies as a fun summer blockbuster that will get audiences excited to see dinosaurs on the big screen again. For what it’s worth, it’s one of the best Jurassic Park movies we’ve seen."

2015 has been a big year at the movies. Four films have already surpassed the billion-dollar mark, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which could very well be the biggest, is yet to come. But this year wasn’t just big at the box office, there was a lot of activity on the home market as well.

The folks who are in charge of crunching the data over at Google Play have combed through their numbers for 2015 and compiled their ten biggest sellers for the year. While there are some expected titles, there are a few entries that you might not have seen coming, and others that are missing entirely. Let’s take a look at what people were watching from the comfort of their homes this year.

10. Jurassic World

Though Jurassic World may have been the biggest movie in theaters so far this year, it comes in at number ten on Google’s list. It’s been available for a shorter time than many of the others, so the dinosaur adventure will likely climb the ranks as time passes.

9. Avengers: Age Of Ultron

Avengers: Age of Ultron is another of the biggest theatrical releases of the year, though it, too, seems to be lagging behind. Again, this is likely at least partially due to the fact that it hasn’t been available to the public as long as some other titles, and the superhero hype will likely drive this forward.

8. Get Hard

People love Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart, and though the movie wasn’t a huge hit in theaters, there is apparently enough good will for their prison comedy Get Hard to take the seventh place on Google Play’s best seller list. Comedies often have legs like this on home video.

7. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 1

The fact that The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 1 is on this list isn’t a shock. The franchise is well loved across multiple demographics, and especially leading up to the concluding chapter of the saga, which is currently in theaters, there was a lot of interest in revisiting this film.

6. Big Hero 6

Popular animated movies often to big business in the home video market, especially as younger viewers tend to watch them multiple times. Marvel’s Big Hero 6, which features an infinitely adorable, cuddly super robot creation, among other memorable characters, is no exception to this.

5. Kingsman: The Secret Service

Kingsman: The Secret Service may be the surprise hit of the year, earning more than $400 million worldwide and garnering largely positive reviews. That success has apparently translated to the home market as those who missed out the first time around are catching up on what they sat out theatrically.

4. The Interview

The fact that The Interview is on here is a bit of a surprise, especially as it’s widely available on streaming services like Netflix and elsewhere. But when a movie causes an international incident and as much drama as the Seth Rogen/James Franco comedy did, there’s bound to be a lot of interest as people see what all the fuss was about.

3. American Sniper

While American Sniper didn’t cause as much controversy as The Interview, it was divisive among many movie fans, and also a huge hit. The tale of a sniper returning from war enticed an audience that doesn’t go to the movies much to hit theaters in droves, and that success looks to have translated to the home market as well.

2. Lucy

Luc Besson’s bananas sci-fi actioner Lucy was another unexpected hit in 2014, and though it’s been readily available on home video for some time, it doesn’t appear that its momentum has slowed much. It probably doesn’t hurt matters that it has the continually popular Scarlett Johansson in the lead, though number two is still very high.

1. Interstellar

Christopher Nolan’s epic space adventure Interstellar is one of those movies that simply begs to be seen on the biggest screen you can possibly find. But apparently quite a few people feel compelled to watch it at home as well, as the Matthew McConaughey-fronted saga will finish out 2015 as Google Play’s top selling movie title.

Out of the many talking points to arise from American Sniper's record breaking run, the one that seems to surface the most is that damned baby doll. It's a good thing Bradley Cooper's a good sport about it, but it's even better when you realize just how ridiculous he felt about the whole thing as he did it.

The Ellen Show recently had Cooper on as a guest, and while he was there to promote his new chef drama, Burnt, Ellen couldn't resist jumping in on Babygate 2015. Apparently, between Cooper and American Sniper co-star Sienna Miller's recent appearances on the show, it was learned that the baby was supposed to be a radio controlled deal. Unfortunately, for one reason or another, the gear wasn't working, and Cooper had to take one for the team. Yet with that wry grin, Bradley Cooper set off to make the most convincing baby movements, after saying the following:

The funniest part about Cooper's response isn't the fact that he invokes Jim Henson's beloved creation, but according to his own account, he did so while still in character as Chris Kyle. Yet all of this could have been avoided, if Clint Eastwood went with the method performance. As it turns out, Bradley Cooper spilled that the reason a doll was being used in the first place was because director Clint Eastwood didn't want to use a real baby.

The unpredictability of a live performance was too risky for the seasoned professional to gamble with, so the animatronic doll was the preferred option. Say what you will about kids being unpredictable, but at least you don't have to worry about them running out of batteries. You can watch the scene in question below, for the first or five-hundredth time, below.

With almost a full year passing after American Sniper's release, it's funny that the baby still has such traction when it comes to talking about the film. Considering how politically charged Chris Kyle's record is, both during and after his combat service, you would have thought that the film would still remain as a sore spot for partisans left and right. But it's nice to know that at the end of the day, we can all join hands, smile, and call bullshit on an animatronic baby that went on the fritz the day of shooting.

Our fingers are crossed that Bradley Cooper and Sienna Miller didn't have any major oven malfunctions during the production of Burnt. Though we'll imagine that if there was, the stories will start to circulate soon, as the film opens its doors to audiences on Friday.

War Room is experiencing an unprecedented amount of success. The faith-based film from director Alex Kendrick came in second place at the box office this weekend just under Straight Outta Compton. It earned a whopping $11 million in revenue, even though it opened in a mere 1,135 locations. In another turn of events, War Room earned an A+ from CinemaScore, making the first film to receive such a rating since American Sniper earlier this year.

This achievement is pretty remarkable, yet unexpected. War Room was universally bashed by critics, who collectively gave the film an 18% rotten rating on movie review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. But, according to Kendrick, he takes these criticisms with a smile and attributes the film’s success to his dedicated, faithful audience. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter about this success from left field, he said:

Apparently so.

For those who don’t consider themselves part of War Room’s audience, or know anything about it, the film focuses on the Jordans. Tony (T.C. Stallings) and Elizabeth (Priscilla C. Shirer) seem to have the perfect life on the outside, but behind closed doors their marriage is dwindling. Tony becomes increasingly distant and flirts with temptation, while Elizabeth doesn’t know how to handle these growing issues. When she meets Miss Clara (Karen Abercrombie), a new real-estate client, she’s advised to create a "war room," an isolated place where she forms a battle plan to pray to God.

According to Alex Kendrick, he and his co-writer and brother Stephen wanted to tell this story from an African-American perspective because, to them, the African-American church is "more passionate" and "visceral." They also checked in with the African-American community to further authenticate this story about prayer. Watch the trailer below.

War Room, which marks the fifth film from Alex and Stephen, is their highest-grossing work to date. They previous collaborated on Flywheel, Facing the Giants, Fireproof, and Courageous. Alex told THR that the pair plan on taking a break to spend time with their family and friends before working on their sixth effort.

Based on critical responses, the film comes off across as overly preachy for non-believers. However, this film, as Alex stated time and again, is not for the non-believers. You can bet that with such a small theatrical offering, it wasn’t those folks flocking to the cinema.

The last Monday every May is set aside for Memorial Day, a time to remember those who died while serving in America’s armed forces. The holiday traces its roots all the way back to the Civil War, but given the current state of the world, it’s just as important as ever. Today, to honor those who served, one Indiana movie theater is staging a screening of American Sniper, though with special accommodations for those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

According to the South Bend Tribune, the Cinemark Movies 6 theater in Mishawaka, Indiana is hosting a so-called "sensory-sensitive showing" of director Clint Eastwood’s Academy Award-winning war film for veterans who could react negatively to what they see on screen and hear over the theaters normally booming speaker system.

Being a movie that deals with war in a realistic manner, American Sniper is full of sights and sounds that could trigger traumatic responses from those whose nerves are raw from their experiences overseas. To prevent this, the theater will dim the lights, but not go to full darkness, and the sound, especially that of gunfire and even things like loading of weapons, will be turned down.

Terra Jackson, the managers of the theater, says the idea was brought to them by:

American Sniper tells the story of Chris Kyle, played by Bradley Cooper, who was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal, the most lethal sniper in U.S. history. With 255 confirmed kills on his record, he returned home, but, marked as his was by his time in war, was never able to entirely acclimate and readjust to regular civilian life. Full of intense, realistic scenes of combat, there are numerous moments, even with the more subdued sensory experience, that could potentially trigger anxiety, and a local veteran’s center will have counselors available on sight in the event that they are needed.

Once the idea was proposed, it was almost a no-brainer. Cinemark regularly hosts similar sensory-sensitive screenings for autistic members of the community, and as the biggest concerns are with the theaters being so dark and so loud, the management says that is an easy enough fix. With the lights left on, it will enable the viewers to keep a firm grasp on their surroundings and what is going on around them, while decreasing the volume will help cut startle responses, especially in the instances of sudden, unexpected explosions or gunfire.

Before the showing today there will also be a performance of the National Anthem, and a group of students from a local junior ROTC unit will present the colors before the hit film.

When a film that was planned as a summer release gets moved to a date that is any time other than the summer it usually spells danger. Quite often it can be a sign that a studio doesn’t have much hope that the film is going to be successful. Lionsgate, however, says not to worry. They seem confident that the new Power Rangers movie will do just fine in January. Their evidence? American Sniper.

Lionsgate shared their upcoming film slate and The Wrap reports that while discussing the previously announced move of the upcoming Power Rangers reboot from Summer 2016 to January 2017, the studio asked the media not to read anything into the decision. According to them, recent releases, like American Sniper show that a January release and box office success can occur together. Lionsgate co-chair Rob Friedmen put it succinctly:

While it’s true that American Sniper was an incredibly successful film that was released wide in January -- it’s taken in over $500 Million worldwide at the box office -- there were also a lot of other factors that went into its success. It’s something of a politically divisive film, which drove many people into the theaters in order to support this particular take on the subject matter. It’s difficult to say if faithful viewers of a weekday afternoon kids’ show from the 1990's will be quite as dedicated to the cause. On the other hand, Power Rangers will likely win out in the special effects category.

To be fair, Lionsgate may be onto something here. The simple fact is that summer is really crowded and it’s only going to get worse. With multiple Marvel films already in production, another slate of DC properties in the works, and who knows how many different Star Wars films we’re going to be dealing with, there simply may not be enough room in the summer for everybody. That includes everybody with a superhero movie or a nostalgic reboot.

Perhaps separating Power Rangers from the rest of the summer noise is a smart move. It certainly won’t stop any diehard fans from going to see it, and it may become an option for fans on the fence who won’t be choosing between it and the Ghostbusters reboot or Star Trek Beyond. If Power Rangers is a success in January we may start to see other films take the hint. Are we on the verge of an "endless summer" with big blockbuster movies all year round? Is that a good thing?

Power Rangers is now set for a January 13, 2017 release.

Clint Eastwood earned himself a victory lap. His latest film, American Sniper, ended up being his most successful film to date (financially speaking). It even wiped our memories clear of the woebegone Jersey Boys, which came out during the same calendar year! We have written many a column talking about how Eastwood’s Chris Kyle biopic performed at the box office, but haven’t dedicated too much space to the why of the equation. Luckily, Eastwood has some thoughts.

During an interview with the L.A. Times at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, Clint Eastwood spoke about the surprise hit he notched in American Sniper at the end of last year. When asked why he thought this, of all movies, ended up being his highest-grossing film, the legendary actor-director reflected:

"Fun" isn’t necessarily a word I’d associate with American Sniper, though it is a probing and touching look at war, and the effects combat can have on soldiers. By singling out the story of expert marksman Chris Kyle, Eastwood painted a portrait of a patriot, but didn’t stop short of delivering precise social commentary on the way men return home from overseas battles, and the systems in place to help these men assimilate.

Audiences connected. Big time. American Sniper took in a staggering $348 million in domestic tickets sold, and added an additional $193M overseas, pushing its cume to $541M. Critics gave largely positive grades, and the Academy bestowed American Sniper with six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. It won one trophy, for Best Achievement in Sound Editing.

But why did it connect on this level? There are a few reasons Eastwood doesn’t mention, though they are obvious. The movie’s based on a best-selling book, and that always helps bring in a larger audience. It also helped the timing of American Sniper that it coincided with the trial for the man accused of murdering Kyle and another military veteran – a crime the man was eventually found guilty of performing. Finally, word-of-mouth seemed to be very strong for Clint Eastwood’s movie, both for the direction and for Bradley Cooper’s Oscar-nominated turn as Kyle. All of these factors led to a smashing success for Clint, and – as he put it – gave him some "fun" questions to explore.

It’s hard to believe that Academy Award winner Selma hasn’t hit Blu-ray or DVD, yet, but that’s about to be rectified with a splashy release from Paramount Home Media Distribution at the beginning of the month. Lots of other big releases will also become available as the weeks wear on, including some big releases for TV programs that have already ended their runs, including Glee and Parenthood. Of course, we can’t forget the Blu-ray and DVD release of Fifty Shades of Grey, which is bound to sell a slew of copies. Check out some more May 2015 releases, below.

Want to know what came out last month? No problem, head here.

May 5

Parenthood: The Complete Series DVD

Parenthood: The Complete Series isn’t a box set in stylish packaging filled with a lot of bells and whistles. Universal Studios Home Entertainment’s DVD set is not meant to be fancy, but it is a way to bring together 103 episodes in one tidy package and make them available for fans to watch them in the best way possible, one after the other at their leisure. Parenthood’s ability to follow numerous Braverman family members as they grew up or grew old has always been impressive, but watching it for a second time as a full body of work is even more rewarding. It’s one of those shows that is worth repeat viewing, provided you don’t mind watching with a box of tissues on hand. The set all comes together on the final disc of Season 6, which features a retrospective feature which we suggest not watching immediately after the final episode, as it may have you blubbering all over again. Parenthood: The Complete Series isn’t the perfect set for everyone, but it’s still a great set for fans, made even better by the fact that it won’t break the bank.

Selma Blu-ray

The story of Martin Luther King Jr. is far more interesting and far more complicated than history books give it credit for. Buried beneath the legendary figure so many remember is a complicated and very real man whose story deserves to be told properly. That’s why director Ava DuVernay and writer Paul Webb made such a wise choice by focusing their biopic on one tiny sliver of time: the lead-up to and march toward Selma, Alabama in the mid -1960s. Thanks to that smaller window and a home run performance by David Oyelowo, we’re able to get a fascinating portrait of Dr. King, as well as so many around him who fought for Civil Rights and the greater good. No one involved is ever seen from every angle, but in limiting the scope, the result is very thoughtful. Kind of like the accompanying Blu-ray put together by Paramount Home Media. It’s not the most extensive set on the market this year, but it’s very well done. The hour plus of features offers a commentary from DuVernay and Oyelowo, deleted and extended scenes, two wonderful featurettes and, of course, the Oscar winning song "Glory" and its accompanying video.

Fifty Shades Of Grey Blu-ray (May 8)

Sam Taylor-Johnson’s take on E.L. James’ widely read novel Fifty Shades of Grey is no small feat. It’s a crowd pleaser for both readers and non-readers, with a fun and contemporary soundtrack and lead characters that are either mysterious or likeable. The sexualized fairytale that makes up the bulk of the plot in the first movie has been criticized by some, but it’s less tone deaf than its written counterpart, and overall a fine enough way to spend a couple of hours, especially for those who are already fans. Throw in a few winks at plotlines that didn’t quite make it from the book to the big screen, and it’s easy to see why Fifty Shades Darker is already in the works. Speaking of the sequel, there’s a teaser that honestly didn’t reveal much on the Blu-ray, as well as plenty of behind-the-scenes looks at the making of the movie filled with fun facts. (Did you know they changed the colors on the graduation uniform so that red could be reserved for the Red Room? The more you know.) The Blu-ray set’s not always the most intuitive; I’d suggest skipping the tour of Christian Grey’s home, but otherwise Universal Studios Home Entertainment has enough chains and whistles to appeal to fans. Buy it here.

Other May 5 Blu-ray And DVD Releases

Black or White

Spare Parts

Black Sea

Mr. Turner

Masters of Sex: Season Two

Pitch Perfect Sing-Along Aca-Awesome Edition

A Few Best Men

Love, Rosie DVD

Miss Julie DVD

Lost River

Mr. Selfridge: Season 3

Parenthood: Season 6

White Collar: The Complete Sixth Season

Halt and Catch Fire: The Complete First Season

Spare Parts DVD

Mahogany DVD

May 5 Early Digital Releases

Mortdecai

Still Alice

Jupiter Ascending

May 12

Still Alice Blu-ray

Still Alice got a lot of buzz following its December 2014 release. The movie stars Julianne Moore as a woman who learns she has early onset Alzheimer’s and quickly begins to show the symptoms related to the disease. She’s aided in her journey by her husband John (Alec Baldwin) and her children, Anna (Kate Bosworth), Tom (Hunter Parrish) and Lydia (Kristen Stewart). Moore’s role received a lot of notice during awards season, and it’s easy to see why. The relatively simple tale is fleshed out with a nuanced performance from Moore as Alice, but also from the supporting cast, making the movie quite impactful. The bonus features are a nice companion to Still Alice. Director Richard Glazer died shortly after the film was finished from complications related to ALS; one feature on the disc looks at how his own illness influenced the way some of the scenes were written and toned in the film. The stark score by Ilan Eshkeri and more are also explored on the disc. You can order a copy here.

Mortdecai Blu-ray

An oddball detective. An A-list cast. An intriguing mystery related to a famous work of art. An amusing sidekick. Mortdecai has all the components to make for an enticing screwball comedy, but thanks to its odd pacing and tone, it’s not always the most exciting of adventure stories. The Johnny Depp-starrer was panned when it first hit theaters, and on second viewing, it doesn’t improve much. That’s not to say the acting or story are terrible. Paul Bettany’s Jock and Depp have an enthusiastic rapport while working on a case together, which involves tracking down a missing painting by Francisco Goya. Interestingly, Lionsgate Home Entertainment’s set doesn’t feature any of the comedic hallmarks like outtakes or a gag reel. Instead, the extras spend time "On the Set" and talking about the music. You can order the set over at Amazon.

Other May 12 Blu-ray And DVD Releases

Blackhat

Battlestar Galactica: The Definitive Collection 1978 Blu-ray

Battlestar Galactica: The Remastered Collection 1978 Blu-ray

Wet Hot American Summer Blu-ray

Tracers

Jurassic Park Collection

Bob’s Burgers: Season 4

Extraterrestrial

Just Before I Go

Unforgettable: The Third Season DVD

The Drownsman

The Cobbler

May 12 Early Digital Releases

Kingsman The Secret Service (May 15)

May 19

Boardwalk Empire: The Complete Series DVD

For five seasons HBO presented us with a ton of complicated storylines in Atlantic City, Chicago and New York, with vivid personalities dealing with topics such as race relations, Prohibition, crime and punishment, relationships and more. At the epicenter of the grand cast, which includes Michael K. White, Gretchen Mol, Jack Huston, Vincent Piazza, Stephen Graham and Kelly McDonald, is Buscemi’s Thompson, a complex man who strives for power and appreciates competence, but also can be listless and self-destructive.

There’s a moment in Boardwalk Empire when Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi), now aged and broken, tells his brother Eli (Shea Whigham) a story about how he went swimming in the ocean and almost decided to never turn back. While that ultimately isn’t where the drama heads, it’s a moment that is so full of regret and undoing that it capably sums up our entire feelings on Boardwalk Empire, a show that is often unpredictable but is always thought-provoking. Boardwalk Empire, despite having Terence Winter as its showrunner and Martin Scorsese on board to produce, never received the popularity some of HBO’s other shows have managed. But as a whole, it’s a more carefully crafted and compelling narrative. Nothing makes this more clear than the Boardwalk Empire: The Complete Series set, which features all 56 episodes of the series, as well as a handy disc of bonus features.

While Boardwalk Empire is a series that does look great in HD, the DVD set is nice, too, featuring The Final Shot: A Tribute To Boardwalk Empire that looks at the making of the series and ties in to many of the experiences of those involved with the show. Other extras on the disc include a fun segment looking at the building of the wildly expensive boardwalk and the series discs themselves include commentary and more. You can order the complete series set here.

American Sniper Blu-ray

Following American Sniper’s release and subsequent collection of Academy Award nominations, criticism of the film, unfortunately, devolved into a series of questions about its politics and its stance on war. That’s unfortunate. Those questions are worthy topics, of course, but in a way, Bradley Cooper’s incredible lead performance and the careful way Clint Eastwood put the film together were lost in that game of political hot potato, and the actual quality of the movie sort of got muddled by everyone’s personal views on the war. Regardless of where people stand, however, they should be able to appreciate just how good Cooper is and how unflinching the film is when it looks at the emotional toll his emotional baggage takes on his family and his entire life. He’s not a man who leaves it at the office, no matter how good at his job he might be. The special features on the disc aren’t as extensive as one would hope for a film nominated for 6 Academy Awards, but the making of featurette and the one tracing Chris Kyle’s story are must-watches for big fans of the movie looking for more.

Hot Tub Time Machine 2 Blu-ray

Hot Tub Time Machine 2 has a similar recipe to the first movie in the franchise, but the lack of John Cusack along with any semblance of sweetness dulls the plot quite a bit. Still, the Craig Robinson, Rob Corddry and Clark Duke starrer tries to be bigger and bolder, and director Steve Pink’s second movie sends our anti-heroes into the future to stop a potential murder plot. Along the way, Adam Scott joins the gang for a weird and twisty romp that even manages to bring back Chevy Chase as the time machine guru. As it turns out, though, eighties nostalgia is a little more fun than the future, and while there’s nothing wrong with the pop culture-oriented insults bandied about in this sequel, it may not be one to own. If you do grab Paramount Home Media Distribution’s Blu-ray set, you will get the unrated cut, which rolls with the title "Hotter and Wetter, because obviously. There are plenty of extras on the disc, too, which features the amusingly titled "Bloopers and General Fuck Ups By The Cast." Do give that one a watch.

Other May 19 Blu-ray And DVD Releases

Strange Magic

Zombeavers

Beauty & The Beast: The Second Season

Glee: The Final Season

Orange Is The New Black: Season Two

Maya The Bee Movie

May 19 Early Digital Releases

The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water

May 26

Sons Of Liberty Blu-ray

History has had great luck with original programming that has used historical details to expand on larger, more colorful premises. The latest of these is Sons of Liberty, an entertaining take on the founding fathers and the movement for independence, directed by Kari Skogland. The three-part miniseries is filled with major historical figures like Paul Revere (Michael James-Raymond) and Benjamin Franklin (Dean Norris) and events, but isn’t always the most accurate depiction of the historical figures it is representing. Luckily, it’s filled with charming individuals, including Sam Adams (Ben Barnes), whose plucky instincts lead to a memorable chase through a bar and then onto a rooftop. It’s not all spirited clashes, however. Events like the Boston massacre are sobering and others, like the signing of the Declaration of Independence, are enormously gratifying. Lionsgate Home Entertainment’s set itself comes with a bit more substance, including bonus features looking at the historical moments explored during the miniseries with a little less melodrama. Another segment looks at shooting the war scenes with practical effects. If you’d like to purchase the History project, you can do so here.

Other May 26 Blu-ray And DVD Releases

Seventh Son

Cut Bank

The Loft

Hello Ladies: Season 1

Ray Donovan: Season Two

Major Crimes: The Complete Third Season

Sword Of Vengeance

Ballet 422

Nightlight

Let Us Prey

Project Almanac

May 26 Early Digital Releases

The Duff

Chappie

Unfinished Business (May 29)

From being named People’s “Sexiest Man Alive” to earning three consecutive Oscar nominations, Bradley Cooper has had quite an interesting career. His big blue eyes have always won over the hearts of swooning fans, but Cooper had to pay his dues for many years to lead up to the critical-acclaim he has earned today. With roles such as the distant war hero Chris Kyle in the controversial American Sniper to a struggling bipolar man just released from a psychiatric hospital in Silver Linings Playbook, Cooper has shown a range of acting skills in the last few years that arguably had not been expected in the past.

The 40-year-old actor had his up and downs, starring in minor roles of a diverse assortment of characters. Living past the pretty-boy persona can be a difficult feat but despite Cooper’s own personal struggles he has far surpassed that, showing the world that he is a capable and talented actor. His days of being the beau to some famous actress are over, and now he is front and center. So here are 10 awesome things you probably never knew about Bradley Cooper.

He Auditioned For Green Lantern

Though talks of Bradley Cooper in the running for an upcoming Green Lantern role are currently traveling through the internet, this wouldn’t be the first time the actor auditioned for the part. Back in 2009, Cooper was a frontrunner against Ryan Reynolds for the titular role in Green Lantern. He told Conan O’Brien on The Tonight Show (via MTV) that during his audition he couldn’t help but imitate Christian Bale’s Batman:

He Gained 40 Pounds For His American Sniper Role

For his role as Chris Kyle, Bradley Cooper put on about 40 pounds of pure muscle to resemble the war hero. He had two workouts a day of two hours each and instead of having a year, Cooper only had three months of prep before shooting started. Cooper told Vanity Fair that during his workouts he listened to the exact same playlist that Chris Kyle had when he worked out in between shifts as a navy SEAL. He ate 5,000 calories a day and by the end of his time working out he was able to deadlift 415 pounds for five sets of eight reps. He even learned how to hold and shoot the various weapons Kyle used from former navy Seals who served with him. He kept in character the entire shoot.

He Missed Graduation To Be In Wet Hot American Summer

While Bradley Cooper was finishing up his MFA at The New School, he was beginning his acting career. He had taken some small guest role appearances on TV shows and even served as a presenter for a travel-adventure series called Globe Trekker But his film debut came in the cult classic comedy, Wet Hot American Summer. The problem was that filming happened to be right around the time Cooper graduated. He joked with GQ saying he missed his graduation to “get fucked in the ass by Michael Ian Black”.

He Asked J.J. Abrams To Write Him Off Alias

Bradley Cooper asked J.J. Abrams to write him off of Alias because he thought that he was going to fire him anyways. He explained in his GQ interview that his part grew less substantial as the show progressed and it nearly ended his career. Because of his aggravation he asked to be written off despite having no future jobs lined up, and within a couple weeks he ended up tearing his Achilles while playing basketball and spend the next year on his couch debating whether or not to quit acting all together.

His Most Difficult Role Was In The Hangover

For an actor who has played a bipolar man, an experienced war hero, and an FBI agent, it’s hard to believe that Bradley Cooper’s found his most difficult role to be that of a sunglass-rocking teacher named Phil. Cooper told The Guardian that his role in the box office hit The Hangover was actually his most difficult yet. He said:

James Lipton Knew He’d Be Famous

James Lipton, host of Inside the Actors Studio predicted Bradley Cooper’s stardom. Not only was he sitting in on the auditions during Cooper’s application to the masters program, but he was particularly drawn to Cooper’s performance. According to Vanity Fair, after Cooper’s master’s thesis performance (which he performed scenes from The Elephant Man) Cooper’s mother asked Lipton what he thought and Lipton responded:

He Was In Sex And The City And Learned To Drive Stick

Bradley Cooper’s first TV appearance when he moved to New York was in an early episode of Sex and the City where he played one of Sarah Jessica Parker’s hunky love interests. Cooper told The Guardian that upon landing the role there was one very specific thing that it required, “no tongues”. In a Backstage interview he divulged that he had a big problem with his newly earned role though, in that he didn’t know how to drive stick shift. He quickly went to a driving school in Manhattan, but it didn’t work out too well, and a stand-in had to drive instead.

He Knew He Wanted To Be An Actor After Seeing Elephant Man

Bradley Cooper knew he wanted to be an actor after seeing David Lynch’s The Elephant Man when he was 12 years old. He told Vanity Fair that he was sitting on the red couch in his living room sobbing and aware of the dignity and humanity of John Merrick, even though Cooper himself was still so young. And Cooper actually just recently revived the role of John Merrick in the Broadway revival of the Bernard Pomerance play The Elephant Man.

He Was A Doorman At Morgans Hotel When He First Moved To New York

When he moved New York to study acting at the New School, Bradley Cooper worked nights at the Morgans Hotel in Manhattan. He told Esquire that every night he carried had to carry a bunch matches and as a new guest was welcomed he would have to relight all the votive candles and scurry to the door for them. Many celebrities stayed there as well, and one night he welcomed Leonardo DiCaprio who was hot off his Titanic role, and all Bradley could think about was how different the two actors were.

He’s Super Smart

Not only is Bradley Cooper fluent in French (which has blown up the internet), but he also graduated with honors from Georgetown with an English degree. He told GQ he wrote his thesis on Nabokov's Lolita and he didn’t participate in much drama in high school or at Georgetown, but was more of an athlete up until he went for his MFA. Cooper somewhat randomly applied for his master’s at the Actors Studio Drama School in New York almost as a joke, but ended up getting in. Even during his acting career he has contemplated going back to school to get his Ph.D. in English and teaching literature.

You may remember back in late January when we reported that The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 had taken over the top spot as Hollywood's biggest domestic hit of 2014. At that time, we were fairly certain that the numbers wouldn't change, and with good reason: how could any other film from last year make more money when we were already almost a month into 2015? Well, it turns out that strange things happen every day, and that's why in March 2015 we are now crowning Clint Eastwood's American Sniper as the box office champion of last year.

The most recent numbers are in over at Box Office Mojo, and with its $4.5 million take this weekend, the movie has now eclipsed The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 as the biggest domestic release to initially be released in 2014. To date, the war film has brought in a grand total of $337.2 million here in the United States, which is just a little more than the $336.9 million that the most recent Hunger Games installment brought in.

Some may argue that American Sniper's box office ranking for the year 2014 should come with an asterisk. While the movie did initially get a limited release last Christmas - allowing it to qualify for the Academy Awards - it didn't actually get a wide release until January 16th. In reality, the Clint Eastwood film only made $1,329,299 last year - only about .4 percent of its gross to date.

What may wind up disappointing Hunger Games fans more than losing the top spot for 2014 is that this news means that the franchise as a whole loses a bit of clout. Paired with the success of 2013's The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, the series spent a few weeks as the only one in cinema history to have two titles top the box office two years in a row. Obviously, that's no longer the case.

The silver lining that Hunger Games fans can walk away with is the fact that Mockingjay - Part 1 is absolutely crushing American Sniper in theaters abroad - pulling in $414 million in foreign territories versus $163 million for the Eastwood title. Of course, neither come anywhere close to the money made by Michael Bay's Transformers: Age of Extinction, which took in an international total of over $1 billion. On the list of worldwide grosses, the recent Hunger Games entry is currently ranked at number five, while American Sniper is positioned at number 16.

Later this year, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 - the franchise finale - will be given the opportunity to become the biggest box office champion of 2015 - though it does face some rather stiff competition in the form of both Joss Whedon's The Avengers: Age of Ultron and J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Force Awakens. To get back to my original point, however, strange things happen every day.

Despite the bevy of headline-making news item, American Sniper continues to display an impressive fortitude on the box-office battlefield. The film is still sitting comfortably despite being in business for over two-months and now seems set to nab a rather huge, yet somewhat head-scratching record. From the looks of things, Sniper is well on track to dethrone The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 as the top grossing domestic film of 2014. Yes, the 2014 domestic moviegoing crown will soon replace Katniss Everdeen’s revolution-inspiring three-finger salute with a more simple in-unison shout of "Oorah!"

As observed in a report from Deadline, American Sniper, estimated at $322.59 million during the mid-week, is currently hot on the heels of displacing the $336.45 million made from the November 21-premiering Mockingjay. With that displacement, Sniper would also nab itself the #30 spot currently held by Mockingjay in the all-time domestic gross charts, nestled just below the $336.53 million from 2007’s Spider-Man 3, which it would also soon likely overtake.

While one might think that Sniper would easily be classified as 2015 movie, its early release on Christmas Day actually qualifies it for the 2014 running, seemingly defying everything the business world knows about the concept of "fiscal years." From a certain standpoint, it almost seems like a bizarre technicality, since the Clint Eastwood-directed film only did 7 days of business in 2014, and was widely-released on January 16. Now, it will manage to retroactively take the fiscal crown for 2014, despite the fact that a cited 99.5% of its business was conducted in 2015. American Sniper heads into what will be its 10th weekend at the box office, still showing little signs of fatigue for a two-month old film.

Analysts may argue for ages about the numerous possible causes of the film’s staying power. It could be the result of the its ability to resonate with the general popcorn-pounding audiences, or due to the array of controversies that continue to plunge the film into the top of global news cycles, or even its status as a political rallying point for Conservatives who view it as a rare product of Hollywood that reflects their values. Of course, it may have simply tapped the previously ignored silent majority of rabid pro-Bradley Cooper groups.

Regardless of the hypothetical motivations of moviegoers, Sniper continues to be a huge moneymaker. While it does appear that the entry of new weekend releases in the Will Smith vehicle, Focus, and the supernatural horror flick, The Lazarus Effect, will knock Sniper out of the top 5 for the first time since its January 16 wide release debut, the film still seems poised to make enough green to nab its aforementioned status as Domestic Cinematic King of 2014. Plus, it will likely hang firmly enough on the cliff to look down on the dramatic chart descent of the hyped short-term topper, Fifty Shades of Grey.

American Sniper can be seen at theaters now, where it oozes enough wartime family values drama with sharpshooting accuracy for the moviegoers looking for that type of thing, which are apparently a lot.

Theoretically, conservative pundits should embrace everything about American Sniper. The film celebrates a member of our military. It was made by one of their own in Clint Eastwood. And the movie has been cleaning up at the box office en route to Oscar eve, where it took home one statue for Best Achievement in Sound Editing. That wasn’t enough for the hosts of the Fox News Channel’s Fox and Friends, and now Jon Stewart is taking them to task.

During a lengthy rant on The Daily Show about how Conservatives often get angry because things aren’t Conservative enough, Stewart eventually rolled around to the reactions to American Sniper not winning ALL of the Oscars. When trying to figure out if Sniper was snubbed by the largely Liberal Hollywood system because it was directed by Clint Eastwood, one pundit on Fox News guessed, "Probably." Which set Stewart off:

Jon Stewart’s rant feeds into the point he was trying to make earlier in the clip (which I’m including below). Both sides of the political debate often need to find fault in something – in anything -- to keep the 24-hour news cycle going. We all need something to talk about. Were the hosts at Fox News seriously offended that American Sniper lost Best Picture? They didn’t appear to be. As Stewart rightly points out, the movie was greenlit, it received multiple Oscar nominations. If the Liberals are out to get it, they are doing a terrible job.

The American Sniper convo starts around the 7-minute mark. But really, the whole thing is worth a listen:

At least Jon Stewart used his time wisely – to plug his own movie, Rosewater, which apparently you can now stream on iTunes.

Eddie Ray Routh, the military veteran on trial for murdering former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.

As reported by the New York Times, a jury in Stephenville, Texas rejected Routh’s claims that he was "legally insane" at the time of the murder. Routh’s defense team also tried to argue that their client belonged in a mental institution instead of a prison. That claim also was rejected Routh will spend the rest of his life behind bars for murdering Chris Kyle and Kyle’s friend, Chad Littlefield, in 2013. Routh will not be eligible for parole.

The reason we are paying attention to the outcome of Edde Ray Routh’s trial is because days ago, Clint Eastwood’s film about Kyle’s military accomplishments, American Sniper, was contending for multiple Oscars, including Best Picture. From an industry standpoint, Eastwood’s film walked away with one Oscar under its belt (for Best Achievement in Sound Editing).

But there’s no question the film’s existence – and its popularity – influenced jurors sitting in on the trial. In an interview with ABC News, several jurors admitted to seeing Clint Eastwood’s movie, and even reading Kyle’s book, on which the Oscar-winning film is based. But juror Barrett Hutchinson told the news outlet:

To date, American Sniper has been an enormous financial hit, earning $430 million worldwide to become the highest-grossing film of Clint Eastwood’s storied career. The fact that Eastwood is 84 is stunning, that his most recent film has also been his biggest. And while the movie isn’t a complete critical darling, earning a modest 73% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has been adopted by numerous organizations who support the film’s messages about war, military service, and the complicated effects combat has on soldiers returning home from overseas battles.

Some will debate over whether or not Eddie Routh earned a fair trial because of the popularity of American Sniper, a film that reached its peak during the man’s trial. At the same time, the jury deliberated for two hours, and reached a unanimous decision. And now that sad chapter in the evolving story of American Sniper can be brought to a close.

Most of the Academy Awards prognosticators were not expecting the box-office smash American Sniper to clean up in the categories that truly mattered, despite its nods for Best Picture, Actor, Writing and Editing. In fact, the film walked away from the evening only with a statue for Best Achievement in Sound Editing. However, there seems to have been another story from that evening regarding "sound" relating to the film. Now, some people are perceiving a last minute change of lyrics in Neil Patrick Harris’ opening musical number as a disingenuous diss to the film’s lead character, the late Chris Kyle.

In the opening number, you may recall that Harris referred to American Sniper's protagonist in one line, referencing both Boyhood and the Clint Eastwood film by singing,

According to original lyrics by Frozen's Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez posted on Playbill, however, the line was actually supposed to read less ambiguously as "a hero of Afghanistan." The change was first noticed by blogger, Christian Toto, who also notes that it may have been a factual edit since Kyle served in Iraq, rather than Afghanistan. It’s a seemingly subtle, practically minuscule editorial choice. Yet, the purposeful omission of the word, "hero" could also be seen as a huge statement and taking a side in a volatile public debate surrounding the patriotic-themed film.

American Sniper has been mired in a number of controversies in recent weeks, with issues surrounding the current trial of Chris Kyle’s accused murderer, and unsavory accusations about the money the Kyle family has earned from the book and film. However, most notable since its early release on Christmas day, the film has provided plenty of tinder for a fiery political debate ranging from topics of the Iraq War, to a philosophical argument as to whether there is any morality to being a sniper in the first place. Such a narrative has been fueled primarily by the lightning rod-like comments from partisans like Jesse Ventura and Michael Moore, who specifically criticized the status of military snipers being called "heroes" - instead calling them "cowards." It’s an idea that has been passionately rebuffed by supporters of Kyle, continuing a back-and-forth volley of ideology-draped rhetoric from both sides of the spectrum.

I can’t speak for Neil Patrick Harris, Robert Lopez or Kristen Anderson-Lopez, or the motivations behind the alteration, but one can imagine that this lyric change is one that would have gone completely over the heads of anyone who was not acquainted with the tempestuous debate about American Sniper that has been raging its way across the headlines for the past few months. Unless other evidence comes to light, this should probably just be chalked up to another byproduct of the quick-to-react political atmosphere.

The true story of the man at the center of Clint Eastwood's recent biopic, American Sniper, doesn't have a happy ending. During an incident at a firing range in Stephenville, Texas in 2013, top Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle was murdered by a fellow veteran. Those that have seen the movie know that this final moment of Kyle's life wasn't featured in American Sniper, but that's only because Kyle's widow, Taya Kyle, asked the production to remove the scene from the screenplay.

This story comes to us from the New York Daily News, which recently had the interview American Sniper screenwriter Jason Hall on the red carpet for this past weekend's Writer's Guild Awards. During the conversation, the subject turned towards the idea of portraying Chris Kyle's death on the big screen, and while writer admitted that there were early drafts of the screenplay that included this hugely dramatic moment, the sequence was ultimately cut because of a request from Taya Kyle to think about her children and how the movie would be seen in their eyes. Said Hall,

Before deciding to remove the sequence completely, apparently Jason Hall and the other folks behind the Academy Award-nominated American Sniper debated if there was a way to do it right, and actually tried approaching the portrayal in multiple different ways, but it was eventually decided that the feature didn't actually need the scene and it was cut as a result. Said the screenwriter,

Doing their best to keep to Taya Kyle's wishes, American Sniper now ends simply with Bradley Cooper's big screen version of Chris Kyle walking towards the Rough Creek Lodge rifle range - the location where the decorated soldier would be killed.

For those of you who have seen American Sniper (which I imagine is a whole lot of you) do you think that the movie made the right decision not to portray Chris Kyle's death on screen, or do you think that it was an important part of the story that should have been included? Hit the comments to tell us what you think.

It’s not tremendously hard to understand why movie studios tend to be a bit more hesitant when it comes to producing R-rated material. After all, the rating actively prevents movie-goers under the age of 18 from paying for tickets, and why make movies that will automatically limit the audience size? It’s a hard point to argue, but at the same time Hollywood has been undervaluing R-rated movies for years, and looking down on their potential profitability. As seen in this past weekend’s box office results, that thinking should really be put into the past.

While the final numbers are still rolling in, this weekend completely dominated by movies sporting restrictive ratings – with three out of the four top spot titles hitting theaters with an R classification. Fifty Shades of Grey led the pack with an impressive $81.6 million take; fellow new release Kingsman: The Secret Service over performed with a $35.6 million total; and American Sniper continued its killer tear over the last few weeks by adding another $16.4 million to its staggering $300 million-plus total to date. Obviously this is exciting news to anyone who has found themselves a fan of one or more of the titles, as it’s always fun to see that other people appreciate something as much as you do, but there might also be some very positive ramifications for the future of R-rated filmmaking. After all, a rising tide lifts all boats, and must wonder if this could lead to a wave of studios starting to look at their R-rated projects in a different light.

The primary area we may soon start to be seeing changes is in simple budget allotment for studio projects that can’t be made without an R-rating and have been seen as a hard gamble as a result. Acknowledging the limitation that comes with cutting the teen audience out of seeing a particular project, studios have been known to proportionally trim budgets – but with a greater confidence in those properties the equation may change. While studios can’t necessarily predict that their next adult-themed romantic drama will make as big a bang at the box office as Fifty Shades of Grey, they may be willing to throw a few extra million dollars its way to perhaps increase production value and perhaps the odds of the project being a hit in the process. The market is clearly out there, and the name of the game is just reaching them.

On beyond just the money factor, we may also potentially see an effect on the creative side. It’s rare that a year goes by without us hearing about projects that has been trimmed from an R-rating to a more family friendly PG-13 – but an industry feeling positive about more adult-oriented material could have a completely different perspective on that. The money made by Kingsman: The Secret Service clearly shows that there is an audience keen on seeing stylish, violent comic book adaptations, and in the near future we may see a production company try and target them again (I’m looking at you, Fox). Hopefully this can stretch to genres not represented at the box office weekend as well, though, as I’m surely not the only one tired of seeing castrated horror movies.

Fifty Shades of Grey, Kingsman: The Secret Service, and American Sniper are all very different films that had many, many different factors leading into their individual success stories, but it’s the common, adult-focused ground that makes their box office wins so notable. While we don’t necessarily expect to see changes immediately, it will be interesting to see if this develops as a trend over time.

American audiences sometimes aren't the most discerning when it comes to appreciating quality movie-making. The promise of titillating sex or mid-school grade fart jokes tends to go a lot farther than great acting and enjoyable plots. The two new movies this weekend served to solidify the point.

As expected Fifty Shades of Grey was the top grosser this weekend, hauling in a hefty $81 million. In foreign markets the intrigue factor behind what turned out to be a painfully overhyped and underwhelming resulted in opening weekend records being broken in 11 countries and Universal pictures enjoying one of its largest world-wide openings ever. However, for the domestic market it was barely enough to make the fifth highest R-rated opening, just failing to outpace another movie made controversial in part for its use of whips, The Passion of the Christ.

Meanwhile, the far superior in every way (or so says pretty much every critic and audience rating system out there) Kingsman: The Secret Service languished in a distant second place with $35 million. Roll in the $40+ million from foreign screenings and the movie is doing alright against its $80 million production budget, but it would still have been nice to see the better movie actually do better at the box office.

American Sniper continues to hold strong, dropping just 30% from last week and adding $16 million, firing past the $300 million mark. Now only $30 million away from passing The Hunger Games: Mocking Jay - Part 1 as the highest grossing movie of 2014, its chances are still low of hitting that mark. However, if it continues to hold on as strongly as it has the last three weekends, dropping less than 30% per week, it may just pull it off.

For the full weekend top ten, check out the chart below:

Fifty Shades of Grey *

$81,670,000Total: $81,670,000LW: N

THTRS: 3,646

Kingsman: The Secret Service*

$35,600,000Total: $35,600,000LW: N

THTRS: 3,204

The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water

$30,540,000Total: $93,673,000LW: 1

THTRS: 3,654

American Sniper

$16,435,000Total: $304,133,000LW: 2

THTRS: 3,436

Jupiter Ascending

$9,430,000Total: $32,551,000LW: 3

THTRS: 3,181

Seventh Son

$4,153,000Total: $13,423,000LW: 4

THTRS: 2,874

Paddington

$4,150,000Total: $62,343,000LW: 6

THTRS: 2,244

The Imitation Game

$3,525,000Total: $79,657,000LW: 8

THTRS: 1,551

The Wedding Ringer

$3,400,000Total: $59,743,000LW: 7

THTRS: 1,456

Project Almanac

$2,730,000Total: $19,560,000LW: 5

THTRS: 1,732

It can be hard for an R-rated film to earn back serious bank. By embracing an R rating, producers theoretically are alienating a large chunk of a potential audience, essentially telling teenagers – you know, the demographic that routinely spends the most discretionary income on motion pictures – that they have to jump through hoops to see your film in a theater.

These films, however, found a way to reach a massive audience despite the somewhat limiting MPAA rating. Over the weekend, Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper muscled its way near the top of this particular chart. And from what we are hearing, this weekend’s Fifty Shades of Grey has a very good chance at joining it. Until the dust settles on those two titles however, here are the Top 10 Highest-Grossing R-Rated Movies (according to domestic grosses). Any surprises in the group?

10. 300

Released: March 9, 2007

Domestic Box Office: $210.6 million

Zack Snyder inched onto the scene three years prior to 300 with his taut and stylized reboot of Dawn of the Dead. But it was the slo-mo and sepia-toned bonanza of 300 that announced this filmmaker to the world. His visual approach to Frank Miller’s esteemed graphic novel breathed new life into the sword-and-sandal genre, reveling in the blood and gore of a Spartan battlefield. And while Snyder would eventually become known as the Founding Father of the DC Cinematic Universe, his roots will always trace back to this incredibly successful R-rated war epic.

9. Saving Private Ryan

Released: July 24, 1998

Domestic Box Office: $216.5 million

The movie that lost the Best Picture Oscar to Shakespeare in Love still manages to grasp the No. 9 spot on this list of R-rated hits. And that’s largely because director Steven Spielberg plunged both his audience and his A-list leading man (Tom Hanks) into the atrocities of combat with the jaw-dropping Omaha Beach landing that opens the film. Saving Private Ryan was unlike anything Spielberg had directed to that date (and since, to be honest). It proved – much like American Sniper is proving now – that audiences will show up to support contemplative, compelling war-time dramas, no matter the violence levels, when the material is handled properly by distinguished filmmakers with Hollywood pedigree.

8. Ted

Released: June 29, 2012

Domestic Box Office: $218.8 million

Not all R-rated hits have to be war-time dramas. Seth MacFarlane proved with Ted that crowds will show up to support the sweet story of a grown-up child (Mark Wahlberg) and his foul-mouthed teddy bear… so long as the movie includes more pop-culture references than a standard episode of Family Guy. Ted was a huge hit in 2012, going toe-to-fuzzy-toe with the likes of Men In Black 3, Snow White and the Huntsman and Magic Mike … and kicking all of their asses. What else is the common thread of these 2012 hits? They are all getting sequels, with Ted 2 set to reach theaters on June 26.

7. The Exorcist

Released: December 26, 1973

Domestic Box Office: $232 million

Finally, the R-rated list dips back into a little of Hollywood’s history, to a time when audiences cringed in horror at the demonic possession of an adolescent girl. The power of Christ compelled crowds to check out William Friedkin’s wickedly disturbing adaptation of William Blatty’s supernatural novel. Adjust for inflation (thank to the lower cost of a 1973 movie ticket), and The Exorcist would be an industry-changing behemoth. Oh wait, it pretty much already is that – as well as the highest-grossing horror film on this list. Spoilers.

6. Beverly Hills Cop

Released: December 5, 1984

Domestic Box Office: $234.7 million

God, I miss Eddie Murphy. In his prime, there was no one funnier, and Beverly Hills Cop showed how you could combine Murphy’s motor-mouthed yet extremely clever delivery with a textbook ‘80s action thriller. Beverly Hills Cop milked the fish-out-of-water template for countless laughs, building on the momentum Murphy had from 48 HRS. and Trading Place, but ultimately launching the comedian into the stratosphere. They may eventually get this franchise back on track, but it will never be as fast and funny as it was in 1984.

5. The Hangover Part II

Released: May 26, 2011

Domestic Box Office: $254.4 million

Amazingly, we make it all the way to the fifth slot before we run into our first sequel. By nature, sequels tend to make more than their original movies, seeing as how audiences warm up to concepts and often flock to see if "bigger" leads to "better." With the case of the second Hangover, both audiences and critics deemed it as more of the same, just in a different location (Thailand as opposed to Las Vegas). That didn’t stop people from turning out in droves to support the further misadventures of the Wolf pack. This magic couldn’t extend to The Hangover Part III, which stalled out at $112.2 million in 2013. (Fool me twice, shame on me, Todd Phillips.) But it did have a lot to do with the placement of the next movie on our list.

4. The Hangover

Released: June 5, 2009

Domestic Box Office: $277.3 million

People forget how big of a hit Todd Phillips’ first The Hangover was back in 2009. It was so successful, it later helped push the mediocre Due Date past $100 million. That’s insane. Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis were recognizable. The Hangover turned them into household names. And while studios were softening their punches to appeal to the PG-13 crowd, The Hangover reminded several executives that comedies like There’s Something About Mary, Porky’s, Risky Business and Phillips’ own Old School can be worth the risk. Whether you think it’s funny or not, this is the highest-ranking comedy on this list.

3. The Matrix Reloaded

Released: May 15, 2003

Domestic Box Office: $281.5 million

Truth be told, I had to look up whether Reloaded was the first Matrix sequel or the final one. (The Matrix Revolutions was the final one, for the record.) But the films are interchangeably bad, especially when compared to the original, groundbreaking sci-fi thriller that preceded it. The Wachowskis’ The Matrix took people by surprise. They couldn’t wait to see how Neo’s (Keanu Reeves) journey continued. And while Reloaded boasted memorable action set pieces, it bogged down in deep-throated psycho-babble that drowned casual fans in convoluted mythology. The franchise nose-dived shortly after, with Revolutions only banking $139 million domestically – or half the take of its predecessor.

2. American Sniper

Released: December 25, 2014

Domestic Box Office: $282 million (and counting)

Significant for so many reasons. American Sniper is in the thick of a Best Picture race, and currently is the highest-grossing film in the eight-picture BP field (by a longshot). It’s also Clint Eastwood’s highest-grossing films as a director, destroying the closest film, Gran Torino, which sits at $148 million. Now, that doesn’t guarantee the film an Oscar win. Box office is one factor in the annual Academy Awards race, but not the factor. In fact, this year’s race seems to be boiling down to Birdman or Boyhood. Still, when all is said and done, American Sniper may end up being the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time, if it can top the next (and last) film.

1. The Passion of the Christ

Released: February 25, 2004

Domestic Box Office: $370 million

When studios moved forward on films like Noah, Son of God and Exodus: Gods and Kings, they all were courting the faith-based audience who turned out in massive numbers for Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. Few predicted just how successful the gratuitous (but text-faithful) adaptation of the Bible’s most famous story would turn out to be. Churches supported it in droves. Controversy swirling around Gibson’s choices kept interest bubbling under the surface for weeks. And while the director’s reputation eventually was tarnished for different reasons, the impact of The Passion continues to be felt to this day.

It’s not often that something as frivolous as an Oscar campaign has an impact on something as significant as a murder trial, but that’s what the courts in Texas face as they prepare for the trial of Eddie Ray Routh, the veteran accused of killing Navy SEAL Chris Kyle.

Kyle’s story currently is powering Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper, a box-office juggernaut that has collected $326 million worldwide, in addition to its six Oscar nominations. The movie is up for Best Picture. Kyle is being portrayed by the ridiculously famous Bradley Cooper, who also received an Oscar nomination. And the film’s popularity is threatening to affect jury selection, according to reports in the L.A. Times.

Fort Worth-based attorney J. Warren St. John, who is representing Eddie Ray Routh, doubts that his client can get a fair trial in Texas due to the overwhelming popularity of American Sniper. The attorney has filed for a change of venue, though the judge in the case has rejected the request so far. Deborah Denno, a law professor at Fordham University, has told the L.A. Times that court cases involving celebrity is "always an issue," but that "you can multiply that by a thousand with Chris Kyle" because of the current white-hot spotlight shining on the case thanks to American Sniper. Denno made a comparison to a Michael Jackson trial, stating:

Jury selection has begun, and legal experts have said that American Sniper -- both the movie and the book on which it is based – will be a focal point when questioning potential candidates to sit in the box and listen to the case. In a separate story, The L.A. Times reports that the judge told potential jurors who had been summoned to court this week that knowledge of the book, or a viewing of the movie, will not disqualify them from sitting in the jury on this particular case.

The timing of the case is complicated. Warner Bros. pushed Clint Eastwood’s biopic into December so that it would qualify for an Oscar run. The movie paid off. But that means that while the movie is grabbing headlines – as it has for weeks due to its various successes – it’s also pulling focus both toward and away from the actual man and his tragic murder. We’ll continue to track the progress of both American Sniper, and the Texas murder case tied to Chris Kyle’s death.

This year's list of films nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards is an eclectic one, featuring multiple sharp, powerful dramas, as well as a couple rather darkly funny comedies. But what if you were to splice a bit of adorable into that formula? Well, then you would get this brand new video bluntly titled "KIDS REENACT 2015 OSCAR NOMINEES."

This parody video comes to us courtesy of the folks over at CineFix, and I honestly found myself laughing quite a bit watching the antics. While it definitely helps that the writing is actually rather sharp and and works well with the young voices, I actually have to give a lot of credit to the young stars as well as the costuming/make-up teams who really did an awesome job here.

Seriously, the beard on "young Bradley Cooper" from American Sniper is so comedically perfect that for a half-second I actually thought it was real:

Props are due to those who developed the wig on top of bald cap look in the Birdman parody. That portion of the video is most certainly the most bizarre of any of the segments, but double hair piece makes it.

So, if we were to select a Best Picture based on these clips, who would we choose? I'd personally pick Selma, but that's really just because of this sly, badass smile that creeps across "young David Oyelowo's" face when he realizes that he has "young Tom Wilkinson right where he wants him:

If you had to choose a favorite Best Picture nominee based on these clips, who would it be? Hit the comments section below explain your choice, and be sure to stay tuned to our Oscar coverage in the run-up to the Academy Awards on February 22nd.

As we quickly approach the 2015 Oscars, the American Sniper controversies are far from over. The Clint Eastwood film starring Bradley Cooper as the deadliest sniper in U.S. history, Chris Kyle, may be raking in movie ticket sales and breaking box-office records, but it continues to stir the political pot. Now the tension has even spilled overseas to Baghdad, where its only movie theater has pulled the film from its slate amid various complaints.

The theater, located in Baghdad’s new Mansour Mall, is the first to offer an American-style moviegoing experience to Iraqis, which includes tubs of popcorn and the latest movie releases. However, as reported by The Washington Post, the theater’s manager, Fares Hilal, was contacted over the phone by a senior official from the Ministry of Culture who threatened him with fines and potential closure if he didn’t pull American Sniper. This placed Hilal in a precarious position, but he ultimately complied with the demand. As he said:

Many people did see the film anyway, through online channels. But there were many citizens besides government officials who denounced the film. As The Post notes, one theater screening of the film incited shouts from the audience due to harmful and insulting portrayals of the Iraqi people. Specifically, the scene in which a young boy picks up a grenade launcher was called "a lie" and "demeaning" to the culture. According to other viewers, like 27-year-old teacher Ahmed Kamal, there are many inaccuracies and one-sided retellings that form a false image of Iraqis.

As Kamal said, American Sniper makes all Iraqis out to look like terrorists and "savages," while all the American characters were glorified for their bravery. In addition, 32-year-old Sarmad Moazzem, who was one of the many Iraqis who worked with the American troops, said the film left out this entire portion of the story.

While the argument can be made that American Sniper is just a film and should be taken more as a dramatization instead of historical fact, it’s important to note that Muslim- and Arab-Americans have noted a stark rise in threats made against them as a result of the film. According to a letter addressed to Bradley Cooper by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the largest Arab civil rights organization in America, the negative portrayals of these people in the film has reignited hatred and harmful stereotypes. The group’s president, Samer Khalaf, called for a statement from the star of the film denouncing such actions by audience members, as he felt simply boycotting the film would only inspire more people to go see it. As of this time, the Oscar nominee has yet to respond.

Clint Eastwood's American Sniper has been a true blue monster at the box office. Since getting a wide release a few weeks ago, the movie has been setting box office records left and right, and it has managed to keep the top spot domestically for three straight weekends. Unfortunately for the film, if new prognostications are correct then American Sniper's reign as #1 will soon be over. Why? Because The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water is hitting theaters and is expected to steal away all of the conversation.

The analysts over at The Wrap have taken a close hard look at the new wide releases coming out this week, and have determined that it will be the new Nickelodeon cartoon film that knocks American Sniper off its pedestal. It is being predicted that the new Spongebob Squarepants movie will be able to pull in $35 million this Friday, which means that it should be able to beat Clint Eastwood's film quite handily (considering the war movie only pulled in $31.8 million to win Super Bowl weekend). Obviously the kids movie is also expected to outpace the other two new releases - Andy and Lana Wachowski's Jupiter Ascending and Sergey Bodrov's Seventh Son - though it's unclear how those to projects are expected to do against the Bradley Cooper-led project.

What American Sniper has been able to achieve thus far at the box office is nothing short of spectacular - and it's really only made more amazing by the fact that almost all of the success was found in January (classically one of the worst release months of the year). To date the film has made $248 million domestically, and while it currently sits at #6 on the list of Top 10 movies of 2014 in the U.S., it's actually expected that the movie will surpass titles like Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 to become the highest grossing domestic hit of the year.

But why will it be The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water what winds up taking American Sniper's place at the top of the box office? Not only does the feature have a good deal of franchise history behind it, but it also has the same advantage that all family films have, in that kids going to see the film will be dragging along their parents, ensuring extra ticket sales. Whether or not it will be able to stand up against the likes of Fifty Shades of Grey or Kingsman: The Secret Service in its second week is another question entirely, but also one that will have a much clearer answer in about seven days.

Will you be going to support American Sniper with your hard earned dollar this weekend or taking in a screening of he Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water? Or will you be choosing something else entirely?

Despite its Golden Globes snub, Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper continues to break box-office records, in addition to holding six Oscar nominations. While the 2015 Super Bowl dominated discussions this past weekend, people were apparently still heading out to theaters. What were most of them seeing? The film about the deadliest sniper in U.S. history.

Super Bowl weekend has proven to be pretty rough terrain for film releases to traverse, and most films released during this time earn the bulk of their box-office dough in between Friday and Saturday. On January 30, three small films — Project Almanac, Black or White and The Loft — debuted in theaters, while major titles avoided this slot like the plague. However, American Sniper still emerged victorious at the box office in light of this slump. In raking in $31.85 million, as reported by Deadline, the film has become the highest-grossing movie over Super Bowl weekend. If you can believe it, the last to hold this title was Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best Of Both Worlds Concert with $31.12 million.

Since debuting in limited release this past Christmas before receiving wider distribution on January 16, American Sniper has set a number of box-office records. It’s the highest-grossing film to be released in January, which is known to be a graveyard of crappy films, and it’s the highest-grossing Clint Eastwood movie of all time, which is followed closely by Gran Torino. Adding yet another victory to its still strong run is probably the biggest middle finger it could give to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Among all the various contenders who did not receive nominations from HFPA, the story of Chris Kyle was one of the bigger snubs and some worried this meant bad things for the Oscars. However, since getting a wide release, more people have been able to experience the film and it became one of the Oscar nominees to get the most nominations.

As more people see American Sniper, however, more people are throwing themselves into the on-going controversy. Not too long ago Michael Moore tweeted that snipers were "cowards," while simultaneously bashing the film for idolizing them. Then the always-controversial Sarah Palin stepped into the conversation with her "Fuc_ You Michael Moore" sign seen around the world. And former actor/pro-wrestler Jesse Ventura is still vocal about his disdain for Kyle. On top of all of this, the largest Arab-American civil rights organization in the country, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, has noted a drastic rise in threats made towards Muslims and Arabs in light of the film.

While these complaints are taking the spotlight away from the film itself and the performances by its actors, it seems to be a contributing factor to American Sniper’s still growing movie ticket sales. However, we’re now in February and two long-delayed films, Seventh Son and Jupiter Ascending, will make there debuts, as well as the highly anticipated 50 Shades of Grey movie. So Eastwood and co. should take advantage of this box-office success while it lasts.

Box-office juggernaut, American Sniper continues to be a politically divisive hot potato of a topic. However, there’s still one person out there for whom the film’s controversy is actually personal. Former Minnesota Governor, Jesse Ventura, who, last summer, won a libel lawsuit against the estate of the American Sniper himself, Chris Kyle (played by Bradley Cooper), is still not quite ready to bury the hatchet with the late real-life protagonist and will apparently not see the movie.

Reportedly, the former actor and pro-wrestler is still out there in full feud mode regarding the subject of Kyle, seemingly promoting a WrestleMania match that we’ll never get to see.

Well, shit just got real! Ventura would further dismiss the film’s perceived implications about the Iraq War, adding, in possibly a back-handed remark to director, Clint Eastwood, "It’s as authentic as Dirty Harry."

Ventura, himself a former Navy SEAL before his days in the squared circle, in front of the film camera or the Governor’s mansion, felt that his honor was besmirched in Kyle’s 2012 book, American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History. The 37-week New York Times bestseller originally contained a passage depicting a 2006 incident in a California bar claiming Ventura verbally disrespected SEALs, inciting Kyle to punch him out. The passage would cause Ventura to, in a widely-publicized and controversial move, sue the estate of Kyle, overseen by his widow, Taya (played by Sienna Miller) for an initial damages claim of $5 to $15 million. At the end of last July, the Minnesota jury, not completely unanimous in its decision, would award Ventura $1.8 million and publisher, HarperCollins removed the piece in question.

No stranger to other, non-American Sniper controversies, the former "Body," Ventura is currently embracing his role as a go-to personality for all things conspiracies. (Notably about 9/11.) He’s hung up both his spandex and his Brooks Brothers suits, currently residing in Mexico, where he hosts an Internet-based show called, appropriately enough, Off the Grid, where he continues to discuss the issues of the day in an unmistakably Jesse Ventura way. However, controversies about the film aside, his continuing vendetta with the late Kyle, who was killed in a 2013 shooting range incident from a traumatized veteran he was allegedly trying to help, seems to be pushing a seemingly petty beef well past its expiration date. It might do him well to move on from the bitterness and be the guy that "ain’t got time to bleed" like his Predator character, Blain. Just see the movie and, in the very least, appreciate it as work of quasi-reality. —Which is pretty much what ANY supposedly biographical film churned out by Hollywood should be considered.

American Sniper, much to the chagrin of its detractors, is currently dominating the box-office, coldly, calculatingly waiting atop the nest of the charts with (as of today), a $257.1 million global take. (Most of which, understandably, is from domestic.)

American Sniper dominated the box office during its opening weekend and set a number of records in the process. In addition, it has been nominated for a total of six Oscars, including for Bradley Cooper’s performance as the deadliest sniper in U.S. history, Chris Kyle. However, it’s also sparked a number of controversies in the process, and another one has unfortunately popped up.

According to the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, which is the largest Arab civil rights organization in America, there’s been a dramatic increase in the number of "serious threats" made against Arab and Muslim Americans. Most of these messages were perpetrated on Twitter and Facebook, with direct references to American Sniper. As pointed out by Reuters, one tweet called Arabs "vermin scum," while others have included threats of death. To quell some of this resurrected bigotry towards Arabs and Muslims, ADC President Samer Khalaf wrote a letter to Bradley Cooper, calling for the Oscar-nominated actor to make a statement against these threats. It reads, in part:

As Khalaf noted outside the letter, boycotting the film would only serve to make audiences want to see it more and it wouldn’t help snuff out this increased anger. Though Bradley Cooper and his director Clint Eastwood have yet to respond to the letter or the threats, Warner Bros. spokesman Jack Horner released a statement to Reuters. He said that the company both "denounces any violent, anti-Muslim rhetoric" and believes that hate and bigotry "have no place in the important dialogue that this picture has generated."

Aside from its skyrocketing ticket sales, American Sniper has been making headlines in light of statements made by Michael Moore and Sarah Palin. Moore originally called snipers "cowards" and bashed the film for glorifying them, though he more recently released a lengthy statement on Facebook declaring his longstanding support for the troops. Palin, however, was quick to lash back at him and liberals, before holding up a sign at the Iowa Freedom Summit that read, "Fuc_ You Michael Moore." Cooper has been staying mum through all of this, instead choosing to visit troops during a special screening of American Sniper at Brooke Army Medical Center. He also released a video statement supporting those fighting overseas.

However, perhaps this is the best time for the actor to break his silence. Despite best efforts, bigotry towards Arabs and Muslims still remains within the U.S. regardless of misinformation or misdirected aggression. Given the climate, it’s in Cooper’s -- and all of our -- best interest to snuff out a new wave of hatred before it crests.

American Sniper held strong to the number one spot, dropping less than 30% and adding $64 million and just crossing the $200 million mark. While directing is nothing new for Clint Eastwood, this is his most successful effort to date by box office standards. Sniper has already surpassed his previous highest grosser, Gran Torino's $148 million.

Of the three newcomers this weekend, only one had any success. The Boy Next Door took a hammering at the hands of critics, but thanks to an almost non-existent $4 million budget it turned a nice profit with its second place $15 million debut.

George Lucas' latest offering, Strange Magic, tanked, banking just $5 million for a seventh place opening. Johnny Depp's Mortdecai made an even poorer showing, earning $4 million against its $60 million production budget. Those two movie join Blackhat on a fast-growing list of major box office bombs in 2015.

For the full weekend top ten, check out the chart below:

American Sniper

$64,365,000Total: $200,137,000LW: 1

THTRS: 3,705

The Boy Next Door *

$15,001,000Total: $15,001,000LW: N

THTRS: 2,602

Paddington

$12,391,000Total: $40,062,000LW: 3

THTRS: 3,355

The Wedding Ringer

$11,600,000Total: $39,677,000LW: 2

THTRS: 3,003

Taken 3

$7,600,000Total: $76,051,000LW: 4

THTRS: 2,909

The Imitation Game

$7,136,000Total: $60,642,000LW: 6

THTRS: 2,025

Strange Magic *

$5,534,000Total: $5,534,000LW: N

THTRS: 3,020

Selma

$5,500,000Total: $39,220,000LW: 5

THTRS: 2,046

Mortdecai *

$4,125,000Total: $4,125,000LW: N

THTRS: 2,648

Into the Woods

$3,886,000Total: $121,494,000LW: 7

THTRS: 2,270

Clint Eastwood's latest film American Sniper has been killing it since its wide release hit theaters last weekend. Not only has it made a ton of money, it also is on the path to break two major records. The war-drama isn't even close to surrendering, as new information suggests it's about to break two major Fandango records by making even more money and having the biggest second weekend of any January wide release.

If my film were in theaters right now, not only would I be worried, I would probably be shaking in my boots. I'm speaking to you Paddington, Blackhat and The Wedding Ringer. According to Fandango, American Sniper is on track for another massive weekend showing that could likely mark the biggest second weekend of any January wide release in Fandango history. The film may also take spot for the largest second weekend sales bigger than the first weekend sales of the previous top January opener (Lone Survivor, Ride Along) on the moviegoer destination's site. We know that was a lot to take in so in summary, American Sniper is poised to dominated its competition for the second weekend in a row.

With $120 million already on the books, American Sniper is fighting for theatergoers tickets like an unstoppable force. It has already become Eastwood's second highest grossing film of all time, next to Gran Torino. Only in its second weekend, it is on par to beat that film's total domestic gross of just under $150 million. Its instant success can be tied to a variety of factors including its Academy Award nominations, which it received for Best Picture, Best Actor for Bradley Cooper, Best Adapted Screenplay and a few others for sound and editing. It all happened so quickly, as I remember it, with the Oscar announcement dropping the same day as the film's wide release. The strategy has certainly paid off.

Also aiding the success of the film, is the recent controversy sparked by Seth Rogen, who referred to the film as war propaganda and Michael Moore, who referred to snipers as "cowards." Their comments have not only created headlines but also even provoked some political retorts.

American Sniper, which was originally supposed to be directed by Steven Spielberg, follows the true-life story of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, who racked up record number kills as a sharp shooter during the Iraq War. The story follows the legendary marksman off the field of battle, where he struggles to maintain the life, as a father and husband, that he once had.

We're anxious to see how far American Sniper can go. For an R-rated war film, released in January, it has already flipped the script in a variety of ways leaving an impression (no, we're not referring to its use of the obscenely fake baby) on critics, fans and certainly the record books. Check out the film, in theaters now.

Every year, five to ten films are selected by the Academy Of Motion Pictures And Sciences to represent the best of the previous year's crop. These Best Picture nominees can range from wide opening films you've already seen, to independent films you've been dying to see, but didn't want to spend the gas money on. Well, you're in luck, as the best event to celebrate the Best Pictures is rolling into town again; AMC Theaters has announced their ninth annual Best Picture Showcase.

Since 2006, AMC Theaters has been offering audiences the opportunity to indulge in the entire field of nominees for top Oscar honors. As times have changed, and the field of nominees has widened, the program has changed to offer two options for audiences to get their fix of Oscar nominated glory. What doesn't change is the fact that the price for the event is a steal, considering you're paying between $55 to $65 dollars to see the following great films:

• American Sniper
• Birdman
• Boyhood
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• The Imitation Game
• Selma
• The Theory of Everything
• Whiplash

As we mentioned before, there are two options of Best Picture Showcase enjoyment. The first option is the admittedly more mainstream method, which breaks up this year's eight picture field into two weekends of four films a pop. This option will cost you $55, and is great if you're okay with a typical movie marathon, but don't feel like cramming all of the goodness into one day. However, if you're a daring sort that likes to live on the edge, there's always the more legendary option, which involved all eight films being shown in a 24 hour marathon on the day before the Oscars. That package will set you back $65, and is available in limited markets.

On top of that, this year will also see the debut of a new strategy that AMC Theaters are unrolling thanks to crowdfunding/voting platform Tilt. Much like you can "demand" a movie come to a theater near you, you can reserve a ticket to the Best Picture Showcase 24 Hour Marathon, and if 100 people sign up you'll be charged the $65. If the 100 ticket threshold isn't met though, the event is cancelled and you'll be able to enjoy the standard two day event. Either way, you're only a ticket's purchase away from enjoying an event that has been a staple of AMC Theaters' for almost a decade.

Why should you go to AMC Theaters' Best Picture Showcase? Speaking from experience, it's a fun event that brings together local pockets of the theater geek community. Everyone from internet junkies to people who've been to Sundance show up for two days in the dead of winter to act as a sort of informal film judging committee. On top of the camaraderie, there's also trivia breaks between each film, which offers a chance to net you some sweet swag from the theater's storerooms. Don't worry too much about getting tired or hungry though, as there is a dinner break on the longer day of the showcase, and the shorter day is short enough to let out in time for dinner.

AMC Theaters' Best Picture Showcase takes place on February 14th and 21st for the two day option, with the 24 hour marathon occurring on the 21st. One last suggestion: if your venue is a reserved seating venue, you might want to get your tickets as soon as possible. Reports have been coming in that Fandango sold tickets before they were available on AMC Theaters' website, thus leaving those watching the official channels at a disadvantage.

American Sniper is currently picking-off the box-office competition with extreme prejudice, bringing in $105 million so far. Regardless of the controversies stirred by prominent comments, it’s hard to argue that the film hasn’t been a rousing success. However, it seems that fate, which delivered helmer Clint Eastwood to the film, nearly yielded a different version of the movie, after it almost fell into the directorial hands of the legendary Steven Spielberg. It turns out that the version of American Sniper that Spielberg wanted to make would have been significantly different, spending more focus on the point of view of the enemy sniper who was out to kill Chris Kyle.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, American Sniper screenwriter Jason Hall discussed the series of seemingly circuitous circumstances leading to the film being made. The most notable event was the interest expressed by Steven Spielberg to take directorial duties for the film after having read the 2012 book by the late Chris Kyle, American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History. Amongst what would have surely been a number of nuanced Spielberg-esque stylistic paths, Hall has revealed that the director wanted to focus more of the film on the insurgent enemy expert sniper, Mustafa (played by Sammy Shiek). Said Hall:

Comparatively, the film that we did get from Clint Eastwood was more of a linear exploration of Chris Kyle’s physical and psychological journey through the post 9/11 multi-war maelstrom, focusing on the root of his seemingly inexpressible sense of responsibility. Steven Spielberg’s film would have undoubtedly incorporated these aspects, but with the words "psychological duel," you get the sense that his version would focus more on what it means to be a deadly expert sniper and what part of yourself must be sacrificed. The parallel play between Chris Kyle and Mustafa would have likely grasped on to a "we are ultimately all the same" type of ethos while serving to depict the grand mechanism of war itself as a looming, ever-present character in its own right, putting both men through the tumultuous ringer.

The possibility that the director of the game-changing war film, Saving Private Ryan might have gotten his hands on American Sniper does make one wonder what could have been. Whether or not the film would have still been seen as a cultural rallying point for patriotic fervor or kryptonite to anti-western sentiment is difficult to determine.

By now, you have seen the fake baby cradled by Bradley Cooper in Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper, right? Either you caught it on screen in a movie theater, as the Oscar-nominated film broke box office records for a January release. Or you have seen the video, which has now gone viral. (If you somehow missed it, I’ll show it to you below.) At this point, the plastic doll baby used by Eastwood has become as much a part of the American Sniper conversation as the praises for Cooper’s performance, or the controversy over Chris Kyle’s legacy. What we don’t know is why Eastwood decided to use a blatantly fake baby in his movie… until now.

In the scene in question, Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) and his wife, Taya (Sienna Miller), are arguing about his desire to return overseas and fight alongside his brethren in the Navy. Taya has recently delivered the couple’s first child, and she’s saying that she needs Chris home. They pass a baby back and forth, and it’s so obviously a doll, it takes audiences out of the scene. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. How did this happen? In a tweet that has since been deleted (but captured by Vulture), American Sniper screenwriter Jason Hall explained:

Aw, man, you ARE ruining the fun! Although we do appreciate the effort to drop in a trademark "Clint voice," which makes the rational explanation better. And sure, this explains why Eastwood – a notoriously economic director who isn’t going to let a little thing like a fever baby stand in the way of staying on time and under budget – would roll with the doll and keep his actors moving. Maybe he figured no one would notice? Maybe he thought – and rightfully so – that there is so much narrative and subjective "meat" to Chris Kyle’s story, that there’s no possible way that the conversation swirling around American Sniper in the days and weeks following his film’s Academy Award nominations would involve the fake, plastic doll baby he asked Bradley Cooper to awkwardly cradle that one day on set.

Except, what once was seen can NOT be unseen:

American Sniper and its horrifying fake, plastic doll baby is in theaters as we speak.

It seems like every film covering the Iraq/Afghanistan Wars in depth is bound to be both a controversial, yet successful endeavor for the studios that choose to release them. Sure enough, in the spirit of Zero Dark Thirty and Lone Survivor before it, American Sniper has drawn some ire due to its approach to its subject matter. Michael Moore hit out at the film in two separate occasions in the past 24 hours, and now it would seem that Seth Rogen might be chiming in with his own negative thoughts on the film. Or is he?

Earlier today, Rogen's Twitter feed was host to some comments on how he felt about Clint Eastwood's Best Picture nominee in this year's Oscar race. The initial tweet that started a huge backlash went a little something like this:

It's easy to see how this comment could ruffle more than a couple of feathers - especially considering that the reference that Seth Rogen is presumably making is to the film within the film Nation's Pride, in which we see a dramatized version of fictional German sniper Frederick Zoller's wartime exploits. And he's not exactly wrong. Both films seem to hit similar notes, putting men on the line in dangerous positions of fire, and comparing the fragility of life to the savagery of war time. Of course, there's the obvious difference of Nation's Pride being a farce conducted by Quentin Tarantino, and American Sniper being a heartfelt tribute by Clint Eastwood to a fallen soldier. If Rogen had just left it at that, then it would have looked like an insult, clear as day. Which is exactly why his flurry of Tweets afterwards are so important to the context of the discussion - most importantly the one directly below.

Sometimes film geeks like to compare films they've seen to other films they've seen, which is exactly what Seth Rogen was doing when comparing American Sniper to Inglorious Basterds. He liked the movie, and it reminded him of a film that he undoubtedly also liked. So no, Seth Rogen isn't saying that American Sniper is war propaganda. He's saying it's a sniper movie that reminds him of another sniper movie.

American Sniper is in theaters nationwide now.

Along with August, January is seen by many as being one of the worst months in the calendar year for movies - but just like Guardians of the Galaxy did last summer, American Sniper is doing its part to change its release date's profile. After all, the film has already made more than $100 million in its first four days in wide release.

Box Office Mojo has the latest numbers for the new Clint Eastwood film, and they are honestly jaw dropping. Since expanding to 3,555 theaters nationwide on Friday, American Sniper has managed to pull in an amazing $105 million. This is nearly four times more than both Paddington and The Wedding Ringer, which have come in second and third place during this Martin Luther King Day holiday weekend with takes of $25,2 million and $24.5 million, respectively.

As though American Sniper's numbers weren't ridiculous enough just in the context of its weekend competition, they are even crazier when compared to Clint Eastwood's track record as a director. Despite having only been in wide release for less than a week, the film is already Eastwood's second highest grossing film of all time - sitting behind only 2008's Gran Torino. That being said, Gran Torino was in theaters for a total of 27 weeks and managed to make $148 domestically. If American Sniper only makes half of this past weekend's tally next week, it will already be considered the biggest hit of the filmmaker's career. These rankings obviously change a bit when you factor in inflation, but one still has to be amazed at the new film's success.

So what exactly is it that's driving this success? As you might imagine, it can be seen as a result of a number of factors. It's true that professional critics didn't go gaga over it - as the movie currently stands on Rotten Tomatoes with a 73% - but audiences are absolutely loving it and have given the film an A+ CinemaScore. That word of mouth is obviously going to mean something. One also can't discount the impact of last week's Academy Award nominations - which saw American Sniper get nods for Best Picture, Best Actor (Bradley Cooper), Best Adapted Screenplay, and more - or the fact that the movie has stirred up a bit of a controversy over the last few days. It's hard to say which has made the biggest impact of all, but it's really all come together in a perfect storm of success.

Similar to how Guardians of the Galaxy managed to completely own the waning days of summer last year without any real competition hitting theaters, it will be interesting to see how long American Sniper can keep up its powerful performance. There isn't anything really huge on its way to theaters until February, so it's entirely possible that the movie could wind up topping the box office for multiple weeks in a row. The results of its second weekend in wide release will definitely be interesting to analyze.

Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper went wider over the weekend, and while it dominated the box office with a record take, it divided critics and audience members with its political and military messages. The one factor everyone agreed on, though, was the incredible performance by leading man Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle, a decorated Navy SEAL who dedicated his life to his brothers in arms. It’s hard to believe that this is the same guy who charmed Jennifer Garner in Alias, and entertained audiences in the Hangover trilogy.

American Sniper is Bradley Cooper’s third straight Best Actor nomination, following nods for his two films with director David O. Russell. But where does it rank on a list of the all-time great Bradley Cooper roles? We decided to comb over his resume and single out our choices for the 10 best, ranked from two to one.

10. Leon, The Midnight Meat Train

Yes, we’re going with a horror film in our tenth slot. Why? Because Bradley Cooper was still finding his way as a leading man after small scene-stealing parts in Wedding Crashers and a little-seen TV showcase in Kitchen Confidential, and he made a real impact here. Rarely do actors emerge from the horror genre and make a successful stab at mainstream, but Cooper’s natural charisma shines through the stylish gloom of Midnight Meat Train. Similar to Jamie Lee Curtis in the original Halloween, you could tell that you were watching an actor who was logging time but planning on bigger things. And most of those bigger things happened in the following roles.

9. Eddie Morra, Limitless

Limitless was a surprise hit in early 2011, primarily because people didn’t yet know what to make of the handsome jerk from The Hangover. But Cooper showed that he had the chops to carry an intelligent sci-fi premise, and was convincing as both a struggling, economically deprived writer AND the intelligently stimulated success story that Cooper’s character, Eddie, eventually becomes. Again, it was the actor’s charisma that shined through a sloppy screenplay, with director Neil Burger finding ways to enhance his star’s bright personality with visual flourishes. Limitless seemed like it could have been a franchise for Cooper. There’s no real surprise it is finding new life as a TV series, because the potential for future stories was (sorry) limitless.

8. Face, The A-Team

Remaking a classic television show is a mixed bag. For every memorable Mission: Impossible, there a misfire like The A-Team, Joe Carnahan’s attempt to update the team of mercenaries who now help those in need. The failure of the A-Team movie doesn’t fall on Bradley Cooper, though, who was perfectly cast as the vainglorious Templeton Peck… aka, Face – because, like Cooper, is face is damn near perfect. One issue with the A-Team movie is that reboot cast members Sharlto Copley, "Rampage" Jackson and even Liam Neeson couldn’t make us forget the original TV stars. But Cooper made Face a wild card, injecting him with maniacal energy and stealing multiple scenes with his wit and charm. He was better than this film, and we went on to prove it.

7. Rocket, Guardians of the Galaxy

Should this be higher on the list? Maybe. We debated in the CinemaBlend offices how much stock should be given to a vocal performance, and whether the acerbic personality Bradley Cooper brought to James Gunn’s space epic would (or should) trump the actor’s roles in … well, in the next six choices! (No spoilers.) But there’s no denying the fact that Rocket wouldn’t work quite as well in Guardians of the Galaxy without the attitude that Cooper brought to the sound booth. He played extremely well off of Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista and, yes, Vin Diesel. And I think that Cooper will actually be able to bring new depths to Rocket when he returns to the Marvel universe for Guardians of the Galaxy 2.

6. Will Tippin, Alias

Before Bella had Edward or Jacob, and before Katniss has Peeta or Gale, CIA operative Sydney Bristow often had to choose between fellow agent Vaughn (Michael Vartan) and unassuming best-friend reporter Will Tippin (Cooper). Will’s role in Alias was viewed as a necessary bit of grounding to Sydney’s globetrotting adventures – the regular guy who Sydney, the college student, likely should have settled down for, even though that meant ditching her spy lifestyle. Eventually, the show ran out of ways to cleverly use Tippin, and he … well, I won’t say, in case you haven’t seen Alias yet. (What are you waiting for?!) But Cooper was a terrific soft spot one which hardened Jennifer Garner would land, a dependable rock in the tumultuous storm of her spy life, and the two actors had a wonderful chemistry that could have carried the show for a few more seasons. Can we get those two together in a movie sometime soon?

5. Richie DiMaso, American Hustle

We’re finally getting into Bradley Cooper’s Oscar-nominated roles, and a lot of this has to be attributed to the contributions of writer-director David O. Russell. Cooper’s now a player in Russell’s "company," though he earned his slot by disappearing into broadly drawn neighborhood caricatures – usually with Italian roots. Richie is torn between two worlds – the law-enforcement agency that employs him, and the con artists he lures to help him in a sting. In different hands, the characters populating Russell’s films could be grotesque cartoons. But Cooper, Amy Adams, Christian Bale, Jeremy Renner and Jennifer Lawrence know how to slice through most of the bull to make these roles human. It helps when you are hustling.

4. Sack Lodge, Wedding Crashers

Easily the best character name on this list (Sack Lodge!), Sack is the guy you’d ASSUME Bradley Cooper could and would play for the duration of his career… if he was interested in simply being typecast because of his terrific looks. Sack is the "evil boyfriend" role, the tool who Rachel McAdams is dating – but only because he wants access to her family’s political power. He’s a textbook jerk, and Cooper plugs into the role with such ease that we could have easily assumed this was Cooper’s personality – and he’d be stuck in that part forever. It also shows how Cooper was willing to bulk up for a role. Watch the football scene in Wedding Crashers, and you won’t be amazed at how drastically Cooper changed, physically, for this next role.

3. Chris Kyle, American Sniper

It’s amazing how deeply Bradley Cooper disappears into the role of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, swallowing his natural charisma to play a bear of a man who swears to protect his fellow soldiers. When Cooper plays with David O. Russell or Todd Phillips, he is the center of attention. As Kyle, he’s a silent assassin perched atop a building, watching over all – but unable to acclimate to home life and be the husband and father his family needs. It’s a calculatedly subdued performance that is all the more powerful for what it doesn’t show… and Cooper’s decisions as a performer get to the heart of this patriot.

2. Pat Solitano, Silver Linings Playbook

The better of the two David O. Russell collaborations, and a painfully wounded performance by Bradley Cooper that shows him at his most vulnerable. Behind every Cooper character is the supreme confidence that comes with looks like Bradley Cooper. But Pat has been hurt. He’s broken. And even though he’ll rapidly explain to anyone around him that he’s better… he’s lying. And he can’t truly heal until he meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), the equally damaged yin to his demented yang. Russell’s words require a specific cadence, and Cooper plugs right into the director’s manic vibe. But it’s the soulful hurt resting behind Pat’s darting eyes that pull us into his quest to follow a silver-linings playbook, and one day live a better life.

1. Phil, The Hangover

A controversial choice? Perhaps. Bradley Cooper wasn’t nominated for the Oscar for his turn in Todd Phillips’ shockingly crude Hangover comedies. But here’s why I believe the trilogy boasts Cooper’s finest performances. We should be chemically trained to despise Phil. He’s an egotistical ass who abuses his closest friends and essentially ruins the lives of everyone around him. And yet, we end up rooting for this guy, time after time. That’s due to Cooper, who shows in the Hangover movies how versatile he is at comedy – board and slapsticky, but also capable of playing an integral part of an ensemble. The Hangover movies might be the undergraduate program that trained Cooper for Russell’s films (and beyond). But his "maturity" as Phil increased from film to film, giving us Cooper’s most complete, unpredictable and rewarding performance to date.

Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper shocked the industry over the weekend, powering its way to a staggering $90.2 million tally and easily taking the top slot at the box office. The number more than doubled the figure posted by the previous leader for a January opening -- $41 million for Kevin Hart and Ice Cube’s Ride Along. It’s a huge win for Warner Bros., which is mounting a growing Oscar campaign for Eastwood, Cooper and the movie. But why did American Sniper perform so well? We talk about it in today’s Monday Movie Memo.

American Sniper found its way into the Oscar race last week, nabbing an impressive six nominations including Best Picture, Best Actor (for Bradley Cooper) and Best Adapted Screenplay. It was mildly surprising that Clint Eastwood didn’t also climb into the Best Director category, as the Academy tends to adore Eastwood and his war-time dramas. This year, though, we had a bumper crop of strong directorial efforts, and a number of qualified candidates – from Ava DuVernay and Angelina Jolie to Damien Chazelle (of Whiplash fame) were left out of the category.

We have been tracking American Sniper for weeks now, and expect this to be a major story moving forward – particularly as the Oscar marathon shifts into Phase Two. But to read more about American Sniper, be sure to brush up on:

- Our review of Clint Eastwood’s drama.

- Our 60-second video breakdown of the film.

- The preparation Bradley Cooper went through, physically, to play Chris Kyle.

- And finally, the insight real Navy SEALs provided to Eastwood as he prepared to shoot American Sniper.