The end of the year means you'll have no shortage of movie lists to pick through ... but here's one that's just too bouncy to ignore. My old pals at MrSkin.com have (of course) come up with their list of the finest in cinematical skinematical for the year 2008. Now, before you get all huffy and stressed, it should be noted that MrSkin has always taken a rather jovial approach to movie-time nakedness. (Jovial as opposed to sleazy, is what I'm saying.) Plus, c'mon, we all love a good nude scene. Admit it. Love it enough to give MrSkin a whole lot of longtime fans. (Heck, they even played a prominent role in Knocked Up!)

But if you're scared of seeing copious cleavage or perhaps a stray butt-dimple, here's a text-based sampling of what you'll be missing: The stunning Sophie Monk in the amusing Sex & Death 101; the spunky Amy Smart re-defining "jaw-dropping" in Mirrors; plus just a few sexy peeks at Penelope Cruz, Mena Suvari, Amy Adams, and Angelina Jolie. Wanted, indeed. For a whole lot more (and a lot less clothes), check out the piece(s). And hey, there's another twenty for you TV fans. Since when is there nudity on TV? Check out the 20 film girls, in order of where they appear on the list, in the gallery below.

P.S. This is a list of female nakedness. For the other side of the equation, I challenge the women writers (and readers) of Cinematical to kick-start that roster.

Now that we've entered the final month of the year, look for our site (and several others) to spend some time looking back at 2008. We here at Cinematical will kick off our year-end festivities real soon, but in the meantime Yahoo Movies was first out of the gate with a list of the most popular movie trailers of 2008. Keep in mind this is only according to Yahoo's numbers and represents the most watched, not necessarily the best (we'll have that list later this month).

As expected, a good majority of this list is made up of big summer blockbuster-type stuff, and guess which flick leads the pack? Yup, the one with that damn bat. The top two (Dark Knight and Indiana Jones) don't surprise me in the least, but the next two are ... Twilight (3) and The Incredible Hulk (4)? Really? Those vampires even beat everyone's favorite boy wizard, Harry Potter, who came in at a disappointing sixth on the list, behind Iron Man. Check out the titles below -- anything surprise you? Did you expect Twilight to take the third spot behind whoppers like Dark Knight and Indy? Sound off ...

1. The Dark Knight
2. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
3. Twilight
4. The Incredible Hulk
5. Iron Man
6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
7. Wanted
8. Hancock
9. Sex and the City
10. Kung Fu Panda

Guess this is a good topic to get out of the way now, seeing as we love to do all sorts of seasonal stuff here at Cinematical. Plus EW just posted a pretty solid piece on The 20 Worst Holiday Movies, and by "holiday," they mean December, not year 'round.

On one hand, the EW staff focuses on most of the easy (recent) targets like Deck the Halls, Surviving Christmas, and Christmas with the Kranks -- and I thank them for remembering to include the vile Jingle All the Way and the unwatchable Eight Crazy Nights -- but, um, the original Black Christmas does NOT belong on this list. (Why? Because it's a good horror film!) They give the flick a bankhand by saying "it's not that terrible," but include it on the list because it kick-started the (generally terrible) slasher sub-genre. That makes no sense to me, especially when there's a perfectly terrible remake of Black Christmas that could have made the list. (Oooh, and high-five to whomever remembered New Year's Evil.)

So take a look through the list and let us know what you think. Mostly naughty, not much nice. I mighta nominated Mixed Nuts, seeing as how many great people it wastes. Or most of The Santa Clause trilogy, for sheer awfulness. And for even more yuletide torture, heck, here's a two-year-old piece I wrote called The World's Most Obnoxious Xmas Comedies. Bah humbug indeed.

Love 'em or hate 'em, there's no denying that a big new 'movie list' can really get the geeks talking. Take, for example, this recent (and very nifty-looking) article at Empire Online, which claims to list the 500 Greatest Films of All Time. But when I click on to the first page, what do I see at #499? Saw. Yes, the first one, which I honestly love a whole lot ... but there's no way it's one of the 500 greatest films ever made.

See? Only one peek and already I'm digressing, arguing, and geeking out! Fun! And there's more. 499 more, to be precise. According to their splash page, Empire polled 10,000 readers, 150 of "Hollywood's Finest," and 50 whole film critics while putting their mega-list together. And I must assume that the Empire flick staff had some heavy input, which is good because A) "readers" can be morons, B) "Hollywood's Finest" may have ulterior motives, and C) British film critics are big, fat weenies. Plus Empire has a stellar flick staff.

Anyway, I'll get you started with entries 500-475, because that seems arbitrary enough, and then I'll invite you to peruse the gigantic Empire piece, and then perhaps come back here and share your admiration, your incredulity, and your ire. And I was kidding about the British film critics.

#500 -- Ocean's Eleven (2001)
#499 -- Saw (2004)
#498 -- Back to the Future Part 2 (1989)

... OK, I give up. Go read it for yourself. Back to the Future 2.... {{ NOTE: Erik D. informs me that this piece is kind of "old news," as in a few months old, and for that I apologize. Still fun though. }}

Ah, yes. This should go over well. Our pals over at Film Threat have compiled their annual Frigid 50, which lists the Hollywood movers and shakers who have ceased to move and shake us thanks to their "overbearing personalities, poor career choices and chronic inability to stop making fools of themselves." It's a great antidote to the smarmy lists like "100 Most Powerful People" or "25 Entertainers of the Year" or whatever.

This year's list includes Katherine Heigl for twice publicly dissing the writers who have made her career; Al Pacino and Robert De Niro for their regular appearances in terrible movies; and the Star Wars franchise for grievances too numerous to mention.

And in the #1 spot: Heath Ledger. I quote:

"Why so deceased? Heath Ledger was an actor on the climb, albeit a rather subtle one, to the upper ranks of his profession.... There's no way Ledger wasn't aware of the buzz around his -- admittedly -- bravura performance as the Joker.... And yet, even with a career reaching its apex and a young daughter, he ended up overdosing on a s***load of painkillers and antidepressants. We'd love to cry for someone cut down in his prime, but clearly Ledger didn't appreciate what he had, or the journey he took to get there.... If this were any other person than the guy who played the Joker and mumbled through Brokeback Mountain, we'd probably be nominating him for a Darwin Award right about now."

OH SNAP! Take that, promising young actor who died tragically!

(In anticipation of Quantum of Solace, we're rerunning some of our favorite Bond posts alongside a few new ones. Enjoy!)

By: James Rocchi

Now that there's been a matter of, you know, 24 hours since the release of Quantum of Solace, enough time has passed for an assessment of the canon -- out of the James Bond films, which are the best? Well, it's easy to name the best seven -- and in doing so, draw our week of Bond pop-culture coverage here at Cinematical to an end. Bear in mind that this list is only worth noting as a source of minor-scale arguments -- which is exactly why it's fun. And now that my inner Rob Gordon is ready, let's talk about the best Bond films of all time ... In no particular order, except for number one.

7. Casino Royale

Yeah. It's in there. In the top third, most definitely. There's more in my review, but there's not a single part of this film I didn't enjoy -- or, if I wasn't enjoying it, I was at the very least respecting it as part of the plot, as an attempt to set mood or build character, to tackle the backbreaking stoop labor of thriller-style exposition. Craig is a great Bond, and it felt real -- like the sort of thing that may, in fact, happen in something like the real world. Well, not the kick-ass free-running sequence, but still. Oh, and also: There are computers and cell phones in Casino Royale, and only one piece of gadgetry was essential to the film. Everything else? Guns, knives, fists, phones. It's down-to-the-ground stuff, and it's amazing to watch.

I guess he'll die another way, to paraphrase Madonna's lousy theme song for the 20th Bond movie. Bond's survival of baroque death traps has been mocked on screen all the way back to 1965, when the noted character actor Robert Easton had the following line as a fruity-accented Bond type in The Loved One: "I think it could be dicey if he decides to use the giant squid." There was a giant octopus in the novel of Dr. No, though no villain ever actually employed sharks with laser helmets as in the Austin Powers films. However, there had been a planned robot shark in the kinda-non canonical Bond adventure Never Say Never Again. Our hero has dealt with seven especially exotic murder weapons over the years:

1. Death by giant yo-yo: Octopussy (1983) Resting after an exhausting shag with Maud Adams, Commander Bond (Roger Moore) is awakened by the sudden arrival in his bed of a razor-ended steel yo-yo as large as a family-sized pizza. This must have been the invention of co-screenwriter George MacDonald Fraser, who was always menacing his hero Flashman with just such stuff. I can't nail down the exact first use of strapping a heroine to a log and sending her into a sawmill, though this was considered so essential to the silent serials that it was parodied in the titles of TV's Fractured Flickers. This particular flying guillotine, some sort of cousin to this ancient sawmill gag, brings the circle around from silent movie heroism to modern day pulp.

(In anticipation of Quantum of Solace, we're rerunning some of our favorite Bond posts alongside a few new ones. Enjoy!)

By: Jeffrey M. Anderson

One of the pleasures of anticipating a new James Bond film is considering which singer or band would be most appropriate to add themselves to the long and diverse list of James Bond themes. (Wouldn't a Radiohead theme song be just great? Or the Pixies?) It's almost like winning some kind of award. These songs will likely be revived and re-packaged for generations to come. Not all of the choices have been particularly timeless ("The Living Daylights" by A-ha), and many others are not without a cheeseball flavor (Tom Jones strutting through "Thunderball"). It's also obvious that a great song does not guarantee a good movie, and vice-versa. Hence, as terrific as Casino Royale was, the song by Chris Cornell was only so-so. But no matter what anyone thinks of Quantum of Solace, the new song "Another Way to Die" (by Jack White and Alicia Keys) rocks!

In choosing my seven, I decided to omit Monty Norman's original, instrumental theme, written for Dr. No (1962), but used again in various forms throughout the series.

1. "Goldfinger," by Shirley Bassey
Bassey and the Sean Connery era go together like "martini" and "shaken, not stirred." She had that bold, brassy voice that sounded not unlike the wah-wah horns or the twangy guitar that accompany all that 1960s music. It's the most instantly recognizable song, and the most closely associated with its specific film. Plus how can you not love those bizarre rhymes, like "Midas touch" with "spider's touch" and "Goldfinger" with "cold finger"? Pure genius! Bassey returned to record "Diamonds Are Forever" (1971) and "Moonraker" (1979), the latter for an undeserving Roger Moore.

Tomorrow brings Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott to the screen as Role Models. Energy drink and driving bandits, they crash the company truck, and get one of two choices as punishment -- sign up to mentor children, or go to the slammer. Of course, they choose mentoring, having no idea what they're really getting into.

It's always been an interesting idea -- make ne'er-do-wells change their ways by making them do good deeds and be role models. But sometimes it's not such a good idea. In the world of film, there are MANY characters who should never, ever be allowed to act as role models to impressionable youths. Menaces to children everywhere, they'd most likely do the exact opposite of what was intended. This list is, by no means, complete; but consider it a starting point. Read on, reminisce about these bad influences and then comment below about who you would include.

And be warned: These clips may include strong language, and all sorts of adult conduct.

Tonight (we hope), the longest and hardest-fought Presidential campaign in recent memory finally comes to a close. To celebrate, we've assembled a list of the seven most memorable political campaign workers in the past 50 years of movies. We've got office staff members, campaign managers, and the candidates themselves, each one giving their all in the most important campaign of their lives.

1. Robert Redford, The Candidate

Redford plays activist and staunch idealist Bill McKay, son of the former governor of California, who reluctantly enters the race for Senator with little chance of winning, all so he can speak out honestly on "the issues." As his popularity and support grows, so do the temptations and pressures to compromise his beliefs. My favorite scene comes deep in the campaign when McKay goes a little nuts in the back seat of a car speeding to a TV station. Repeating his slogan over and over, he's so exhausted that all he can do is laugh hysterically. Peter Boyle and Allan Garfield play his equally memorable political operatives.

2. Warren Beatty, Bulworth

What is it about California that makes Senators go nuts? Up for re-election, California Senator Jay Bulworth (Beatty), no longer wishing to live, decides he can finally speak the truth instead of campaign rhetoric, making for a racous series of politically incorrect adventures. Beatty, of course, had previously made Shampoo, in which he spent Election Day in 1968 running around Los Angeles putting out romantic and business fires, but he outdid himself with Bulworth.

(All this month we'll be bringing back some of our favorite Halloween-themed posts, as well as digging up some brand new stuff from beyond the grave. Enjoy!)

By: Monika Bartyzel

Earlier this month, I was writing a post about fairy tales and I wondered why we don't get many classic fairy tale horror movies. I'm not referring to reimagining familial tales into something more adult (like Dorothy and bdsm), but rather going back to the source of the fairy tale. There have been a few attempts, such as Sigourney Weaver's Snow White: A Tale of Terror, but not nearly as many as there could be in the seas of zombie movies and Saw sequels.

What is creepier than kids, parents, evilness, sorceresses, wolves, and cannibalism? Before the stories were ripped from their horror roots, they were just right for scary, gory films. The early days of fairy tales weren't all rosy cheeks and puckered, pouting lips; they had blood, flesh, and genuine frights. If kids of yesteryear saw the tykes of the last 50 years, I think we'd all be getting a feline-sounding name that isn't too complimentary.

So here are seven tales perfect for scary movies. Some wouldn't need any embellishment, while others could easily be morphed into a chilling tale that not only taps into our younger days, but also thrills our current adult lives. Take this as a dare, scary filmmakers! Look through this creepy list and whip up something to scare the pants off us. And for you non-filmmakers out there -- which tale would you want to see on the big screen?

I've done some pieces that I'm happy with here at Cinematical. No seriously, I actually LIKE maybe 15% of my total output, but one of those good articles was a Cine-7 called The World's Best 'Comfort' Movies. And going by our traffic numbers and reader feedback, it seems a few other people enjoyed it too. So you know what that means: Sequel Time!

It was a few doses of horrific dental surgery that inspired the first article, but this time it's the suffering of a good friend that got me writing. Pictured above is Cinematical's official cat (Jonesy) as he watches a favorite film from the inside of a cone collar that he has to wear because his front paws are in seriously bad shape and he's prone to licking at them. Jonesy's comfort movie suggestions are listed in italics. He just likes typing in italics.

The first time around I just picked seven films that always seem to make me feel good, and those films were: Finding Nemo, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Princess Bride, Raising Arizona, King Kong '33, Miller's Crossing, and the comedy combo of Animal House, Blues Brothers, Caddyshack, and Stripes. (And then I threw Superman '78 onto the pile.) But this time I'm using a few suggestions from our readers ... and I'm digging into the scary stuff.

(All this month we'll be bringing back some of our favorite Halloween-themed posts, as well as digging up some brand new stuff from beyond the grave. Enjoy!)

By: Peter Martin

"The answer is not in the avoidance of remakes. The plain fact is that remakes of very good original films sometimes fail because they have not been remade by people as talented as those who made the first versions." -- David O. Selznick, 1956.

The famed producer of Gone With the Wind and Rebecca was on a downward slide when he wrote the above in a memo to the president of 20th Century Fox. Selznick spent much of the 1950s repackaging and selling his earlier productions to studios, pocketing tidy fees for his efforts. The modern-day equivalent is Roy Lee. As explained in a profile in The New Yorker: "What Lee does for a living sounds simple enough, but no one in Hollywood had thought of it before. He watches videos of every Asian movie ever made, picks the biggest hits, and then, on behalf of their Asian distributors, sells the 'remake rights' of those films to studios here, so that they can be turned into big-budget American spectacles."

That article was published in June 2003, on the heels of the financial success of The Ring in the fall of 2002 but before the coming horror onslaught that included The Grudge, The Grudge 2, Dark Water and The Ring Two (all involving Lee), plus Pulse and others. Lee quickly expanded into other countries and other genres, but the most appealing remake target for Hollywood in general remains Asian horror. This year has seen the release of One Missed Call (Japan), The Eye (Hong Kong/Thailand), and Shutter (Thailand); awaiting release are The Uninvited (AKA A Tale of Two Sisters, South Korea), and The Echo (the Philippines), with Alone (Thailand), The Ring 3 and The Grudge 3 all listed in various stages of production on Lee's upcoming slate.

(All this month we'll be bringing back some of our favorite Halloween-themed posts, as well as digging up some brand new stuff from beyond the grave. Enjoy!)

By: Monika Bartyzel

This was supposed to be a list of horror movies appropriate for dates. Unfortunately, I kept coming up with reasons why each movie wasn't a good idea. While my rationale wasn't entirely realistic, it got me thinking about movies that open certain cans of worms. Pregnancy. Momma's boys. Infidelity. These seven flicks have got lots of relationship deal-breakers in them, and can lead to some date-damaging conversation, rather than sexy innuendo and rose petals to the bedroom. They might uncover questionable morals, or even some private kink that you just can't get into. And some will get just a little spoilery, but most of them are classics, so you probably know the gist already.

Either way, you've been warned!


Eraserhead (1977)

Henry Spencer (Jack Nance) is just a simple, nervous printer who thinks his girlfriend, Mary (Charlotte Stewart), has broken up with him -- that is, until he is invited to dinner with her and her family. He finds out that she has had an amazingly brief pregnancy, and has given birth to some sort of strange alien baby. Being the noble boyfriend, he marries her, and is quickly left with this weird, wailing tot when she abandons them. Henry starts to become unhinged, and that just doesn't bode well for baby.

While this may be a short film, Eraserhead is packed full of taboo dating topics. Pregnancy. Marriage. Accepting abnormal babies. Ditching the family when sleep-deprived. Infanticide. One minute, you're watching an eerie David Lynch movie, and the next, you're having discussions about what you'd do with alien babies, whether you'd be noble and marry the mother of your out-of-wedlock kid. Or heck, whether love would keep you with her even if it looks like she got horizontal with some other strange sort of being.