Robert Rodriguez is one of those rare filmmakers whose movies -- for better or worse -- always come alive with his sheer enjoyment of making them. In the case of Machete, that's a good thing. Unlike his corny kids' movies (Spy Kids, Shorts), Machete bleeds pure entertainment. Returning to the crank-it-up style Rodriguez brought to his half of the vastly underrated Grindhouse, Machete comes out swinging -- and usually what it's swinging includes an extremely sharp blade.

In fact, "Machete" was first glimpsed as a coming-attractions trailer between the two halves of Grindhouse. With its delicious catch-phrase, "You fucked with the wrong Mexican," it promised over-the-top action and a dizzying cast that ran the gamut from Jessica Alba to Lindsay Lohan, built around character actor Danny Trejo in the title role.

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Hollywood's 3-D Movies Drive Sales As Fans Resist Prices: Hollywood’s focus on big-budget films and 3-D effects that command higher ticket prices will likely drive box-office sales to a record $11 billion this year even as some fans shun the rising cost of a night at the movies.

A surcharge for 3-D movies may push revenue past last year’s $10.6 billion, Paul Dergarabedian, president of Hollywood.com Box-Office, said in an interview.

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There's a whole lot going on in the Japanese anime  fantasy "Tales From Earthsea," so why is it such a bore? It could be because this 2006 production from famed Studio Ghibli ("Princess Mononoke," the Oscar-winning "Spirited Away"), while covering dungeons and dragons, wizards, witches and the quest for eternal life, is so stiff and humorless it rarely if ever engages its audience.

And, really, who is its audience? Although being released by family-friendly Disney, "Earthsea," directed and co-written by Goro Miyazaki (son of Ghibli co-founder and veteran filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki) and based on a series of books by Ursula K.

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The April to June period included a sizable chunk of monster box-office take for "Alice in Wonderland" and, thanks to an early home-video release, the first month of DVD and Blu-ray sales.

On top of that, "Toy Story 3" took in $258 million domestically in June and went on to become the Pixar unit's second biggest-grossing title ever, behind "Finding Nemo."

"Iron Man 2," released in May, represented another big win for Disney, which bought the studio behind the superhero sequel, Marvel Entertainment, at the end of last year. Though the film was distributed by rival Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc., that studio collected just an 8% distribution fee, after recouping expenses.

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Disney Interactive Studios today announced the release of Disney Sing It: Family Hits, a new karaoke style video game that allows players of all ages to sing along to songs from some of their favorite Disney films.

Now available for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and Wii™ console, Disney Sing It: Family Hits features 30 of the most beloved songs and videos from both current and classic Disney and Disney•Pixar films.

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Ingenious and funny, yet slightly melancholy with a harrowing climax, "Toy Story 3" will enthrall kids 7 and older, and grown-ups, too. The age recommendation reflects the poignancy of the theme about kids setting aside toys as they grow up.

And the scariness of the finale. Cowboy Woody, spaceman Buzz Lightyear and the other toys face a bittersweet life change, because Andy, their owner, is going to college.

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Witty, urbane and thoroughly entertaining, "The Kids Are All Right" is an ode to the virtues of family, in this case a surprisingly conventional one even with its two moms, two kids and one sperm donor. Whatever your politics, between peerless performances, lyrical direction and an adventurous script, this is the sort of pleasingly grown-up fare all too rare in the mainstream daze of this very dry summer.

Before delving into the layered perfection of Annette Bening, Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo, let's start by getting past any hesitations or reservations about the lesbian household premise on which "The Kids Are All Right" is based.

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The whiz kids at Pixar Studios continue a stellar strike record (13 good titles, no bad) with Toy Story 3, the third and final instalment in a trilogy of films that take the concept of personification to delightfully literal extremes, capturing the life, personalities and even politics of toys that come alive when humans aren’t watching.

By now general audiences are familiar with Sheriff “reach for the sky” Woody and Buzz “to infinity and beyond” Lightyear, the two favourite toys of a young boy named Andy, but what they aren’t likely to see coming is a third cinematic outing that not only expands the stories of the two personable playthings and their pals but does so – strange though this may sound – in the context of a prison escape drama.

Woody, Buzz and their motley gang of tender-hearted thingamajigs find themselves relocated to the Sundale Daycare Centre, a place that seems at first like a toy utopia of smiles, rainbows and cuddles but turns out to be a hellish haven for rambunctious little shits. Instead of being tenderly lulled into playtime retirement the toys discover Sundale is their Guantanamo Bay equivalent – a place of unspeakable horrors; a goo ga gulag.

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“Whiz Kids” traces the events leading up to the most prestigious science competition in the USA. The Science Talent Search began in 1942 and currently is sponsored by Intel, the processor chip giant. The filmmakers scoured the high schools of the country looking for 16-17 year old budding scientists.

To their surprise, they found that some of the STS candidates were already working in government labs, sometime under the supervision of Nobel Prize winning scientists. Others were working in that masterpiece of American ingenuity, the basement lab. Here they toiled away, driven by curiosity and fueled by the energy of youth.

The group was winnowed down to three competitors who were chosen to tell their stories in “Whiz Kids.” Keledra Welcker’s research centered on pollution dumped into the Ohio River by her hometown in West Virginia. The pollutant is a byproduct of the Teflon manufacturing process and the corporations who make Teflon are very big and very powerful.

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I always promise myself I won’t get sucked in to ‘America’s Next Top Model’ when a new cycle is beginning. I say I won’t watch ‘Canada’s Next Top Model’, ‘Make me a Supermodel’, ‘True Beauty’ or any other modeling contests. And yet I find myself glued to the television, hopelessly addicted to all of the above, every single time.

How can I resist – Beautiful people, designer clothes, death-defying photo shoots, drama – modeling contests are the ultimate escape. I sigh with envy as girls settle in for their three-hour makeup and hair sessions, reflecting on my own daily routine of yanking my hair into a ponytail and swiping on some lip balm.

I picture myself twenty pounds lighter and twenty years younger. I imagine myself hanging from a crane in an evening gown while a photographer yells up at me that I am fabulous. These fantasies are surprisingly easy to get lost in while sitting on the couch in sweatpants eating chocolate and watching modeling contests on television.

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