Hi, it’s Vince with Screengrab and you’re gonna be in a great mood all day cuz you’ll be grabbin’ your troubles away with Screengrab. Ya like lists? We got lists. How about Great Beginnings: Screengrab’s Favorite Opening Scenes of All Time? We got Parts One, Two and Three. But come on, that’s not good enough. Tell ya what, we’ll throw in Parts Four and Five, no extra charge. Now you’re cookin’ with gas.

How about reviews? Everyone likes movie reviews, right? We got Winnebago Man. We got The Limits of Control, how ‘bout that? You throw your Eldorado in there, you mix it with your Perestroika – come on, you’re not gonna get this at Ain’t It Cool News, am I right?

I’m just getting started here, folks. Watch this – you’re gonna love my posts:

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Our own Nick Schager has already weighed in on the latest Jim Jarmusch film, The Limits of Control, finding it more a test of patience than an exciting genre piece, and it doesn’t sound like Jarmusch himself would disagree. “This film is about the trip,” Jarmusch tells Logan Hill of Vulture. “I’m more interested in the plate of pears on the table than the plot payoff. Neruda, he wrote all these odes to ordinary objects, like ‘Ode to an Artichoke.’ And they are incredibly beautiful poems.”

Neruda isn’t the first name Jarmusch drops in the interview, and it’s not the last.

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Better off Dead.

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In Parts One & Two of this list, we presented The Screengrab’s consensus picks for the Top 5 Hits of Summer 2009.

Herewith, our individual picks and honorable mentions...

Andrew:

Top 5

1. Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince
2. Star Trek
3. Angels & Demons
4. ICE AGE:  DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS (July 1)



C’mon, now...who don’t like Scrat? You’re telling me that, given the choice between a tried and true animated franchise and Ed Asner, kids aren’t going to choose dinosaurs?

5. JULIE & JULIA (August 7)



I can’t think of a better film to fill this summer’s Meryl Streep niche than an actual Meryl Streep film...especially one that fulfills that other great summer blockbuster counter-programming niche: foodie films. All that plus Amy Adams, and I’m about 1000 times more likely to see this than Transformers...and I’m a dude. Add my wife, her mother, my mother, my Dad getting dragged along and all the other wives, mothers, mothers-in-law, dudes getting dragged along and PBS geeks out there, and we’re talking serious sleeper hit potential.

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So, Watchmen didn’t exactly bomb, nor was it exactly a hit. With a 65% critical Tomato-Meter rating, it was neither a fiasco nor a critic’s darling, and for all its sex and violence, the onscreen content was far less controversial than all the legal maneuvering involved with getting it to screens in the first place.

In other words, the first big film of the year was a lot like the rest of 2009’s films to date: nothing to really get all het up about one way or the other...

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Woohoo! A new Jim Jarmusch movie!

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Again using the ever-popular 3 Up, 3 Down format, I will pick up the gauntlet thrown down by my colleague Andrew Osborne. (Hey, nice gauntlet, Osborne! You get a hat with that?) I must say, a cursory scan of the upcoming release schedule doesn’t exactly have me all a-quiver with anticipation, but hey, it’s early yet. Herewith, my picks to click and tips to slip. Or something like that.

3 UP

A SERIOUS MAN

I could really get used to this annual Coen Brothers movie routine. This year’s edition isn’t due until October, but it should be worth the wait. It’s “the story of an ordinary man’s search for clarity in a universe where Jefferson Airplane is on the radio and F-Troop is on TV.” Unlike Burn After Reading, the film doesn’t boast an all-star cast, unless Michael Stuhlbarg, Sari Lennick, Fred Melamed and Richard Kind are at the top of your A-list. But who cares, as long as we get that Coen Brothers feeling.

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