• Treat Williams

By Matt Brunson

HAIR (1979)

DIRECTED BY Milos Forman

STARS John Savage, Treat Williams

Arriving more than a decade after the dawning of the age of Aquarius, this adaptation of the stage hit (which played on Broadway 1968-1972) failed to capture the attention of an American moviegoing public that presumably had moved on: It barely made back its budget and was considered a major disappointment for director Milos Forman after the spectacular success of his previous picture, 1975's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Still, the movie (now debuting on Blu-ray) has had its ardent supporters: The late Gene Siskel named it the best film of 1979 (TV partner Roger Ebert placed it #5 on his list) and, in more recent times, it landed in the #6 spot on Creative Loafing's list of the 20 greatest rock films ever made (go here for that story).

By Matt Brunson

SUPER 8

DIRECTED BY J.J. Abrams

STARS Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning

Writer-director J.J. Abrams' adventure yarn Super 8 is set in 1979, a year that's nestled between the release dates of Steven Spielberg's first two blockbusters, 1975's Jaws and 1977's Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and his subsequent two blockbusters, 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark and 1982's E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. (Spielberg's underrated 1941, which was released in 1979, was a flop.) The selection of this year makes sense, since the picture itself is surrounded on all sides by the influence — nay, the very spirit — of Mr. Spielberg (who, incidentally, is involved as a co-producer). But while imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, it's not always the best way to make a movie. Super 8 is a thoroughly entertaining popcorn flick, but one does get the sense of Abrams sweating up a storm in an effort to produce the sort of guileless matinee magic that Spielberg conveyed effortlessly.

By Matt Brunson

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS

DIRECTED BY Woody Allen

STARS Owen Wilson, Marion Cotillard

Stating that Midnight in Paris is Woody Allen's best film in over a decade really doesn't mean anything at all, considering that most of his output since the previous century has consisted of such clunkers as Hollywood Ending and Cassandra's Dream. His last picture, 2010's You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, even managed to sneak onto my year-end "10 Worst" list, so color me stunned that Midnight in Paris exudes both charm and cleverness in equal measure.

By Matt Brunson

Along with Fox's release last year of its Alien Anthology, The Superman Motion Picture Anthology (1978-2006) is perhaps the best Blu-ray box set I've yet encountered. Similar (though not identical) to the DVD set released in 2006, this Warner Bros. effort (in stores this Tuesday) includes all seven versions of the five films that were produced over the course of a quarter-century.

By Matt Brunson

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS

DIRECTED BY Matthew Vaughn

STARS James McAvoy, Michael Fassbinder

With apologies to Blade aficionados, director Bryan Singer's 2000 X-Men was really the film that jump-started the cinematic superhero craze that continues to this day. Previous comic-book adaptations tended to be made for television, and such blockbusters as 1978's Superman and 1989's Batman proved to be the exception rather than the rule. But ever since Singer's exceptional (X-ceptional?) film hit the screen 11 summers ago, there's been no shortage of super-cinema, with much, much more on the way. In a sense, X-Men: First Class brings us full circle: It's the best X-Men flick since the original, and while it's no match for either The Dark Knight or the aforementioned Superman (read of a review of the new Superman Blu-ray box set here), it still ranks among the top 10 movies to date in this specialized genre. It's that good.

By Matt Brunson

THE HANGOVER PART II

DIRECTED BY Todd Phillips

STARS Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms

Over the course of the countless years that I've faithfully served this newspaper as its film critic, never I have received such an outpouring of venomous reader feedback as when I dared to pan 2009's smash hit The Hangover. Doubtless unaware of my love for such raunchy and decidedly non-P.C. titles as There's Something About Mary, The 40-Year-Old Virgin and pretty much anything by Mel Brooks, I was quickly tagged a "pretentious snob" and a "wannabe intellectual" (oh, and let's not forget the all-purpose "tool") for not busting a gut when, say, Zach Galifianakis's bare ass filled the screen or during any of the film's other desperate jabs at meaningful vulgarity. (My favorite G-rated reader putdown: "Am I to assume that you sit in mod-style coffee houses listening to beat poets silently musing how you can knock down the mainstream movie viewers down another notch?" To answer: It depends. Is someone else springing for my coffee?)

By Matt Brunson

KUNG FU PANDA 2

DIRECTED BY Jennifer Yuh

STARS Jack Black, Angelina Jolie

Hollywood's obsession with 3-D — or, more accurately, the extra bucks it generates — is so out of hand that it would hardly surprise me to learn that 3-D remakes of Scenes from a Marriage and My Dinner with Andre are in the works. Yet for all of its uselessness when it comes to live-action films not named Avatar, the gimmick is a logical fit when it comes to animated efforts, as witnessed by its employment in (among others) Toy Story 3, Despicable Me and now Kung Fu Panda 2.

By Matt Brunson

POM WONDERFUL PRESENTS: THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER SOLD

DIRECTED BY Morgan Spurlock

STARS Morgan Spurlock, Ralph Nader

Just how big of a camera hog is Morgan Spurlock, the documentarian best known for the immensely entertaining Super Size Me? Let's just say that if someone placed him next to Michael Moore, the Fahrenheit 9/11 filmmaker would suddenly appear as reclusive as the late J.D. Salinger by comparison.

By Matt Brunson

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES

DIRECTED BY Rob Marshall

STARS Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz

If the first two sequels to 2003's highly entertaining Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl were fairly agreeable examples of popcorn fare — tasty, a bit salty, not at all nutritious, and forgotten before long — then Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides represents the grimace-inducing alternative: the unpopped kernel that just sits there, bereft of almost all value.

By Matt Brunson

BLOODWORTH

DIRECTED BY Shane Dax Taylor

STARS Kris Kristofferson, Val Kilmer

It's easier to get blood from a stone than to get entertainment value from Bloodworth, a tedious adaptation of William Gay's novel Provinces of Night.