You need to see 'In a World...' ASAP

Every year there is a dynamite, original indie comedy that inexplicably doesn't get the distribution it deserves and I spend the year following its release trying to spread the positive word a mouth in the hopes that it'll be rediscovered on DVD.

In 2012, I sang the praises of the inventive romantic comedy Safety Not Guaranteed.

Last year, the gem that won me over was Lake Bell's brilliant and woefully underrated film In a World...

Set in the previously unexplored world of voiceover artists, the movie has a distinct comedic voice thanks to writer-director-star Bell.

The film boasts a fantastic supporting cast of comedy heavy hitters including Rob Corddry, Nick Offerman, Tig Notero, Demetri Martin and Ken Marino -- just to name a few. It also has some well timed, effective celeb cameos that I won't dare spoil.

And it has real heart. It has something to say about entrenched Hollywood sexism, the tensions between fathers and daughters, marriage, dating and it's also pretty damn funny. If you've ever heard a young woman talking in the "baby voice" and cringed -- this is the movie for you.

Lake Bell

For those of you who haven't seen her work on Children's Hospital, you may not know Lake Bell beyond being a gorgeous magazine covergirl, but she is a real comic talent and has the potential to be a major movie star with the right vehicle.

Even if she never makes the A-list, if she keeps cranking out her own films and if they remain at this caliber I will be one happy, repeat-paying customer.

The past year was largely a bummer for comedy. Derivative sequels ruled the day and the so-called "original" films were anything but (save for the surprisingly subversive This Is the End). So, for me, In a World... -- with its realistic characters, pacing and inventive story -- was a breath of fresh air.

Do yourself a favor and add it to your Netflix and give it a watch when you need your day brightened.

I did today and it did just the trick.

Why 'The Butler' wasn't snubbed by the Oscars

I have now seen three Lee Daniels movies to date. The first, Precious, was in my estimation, brilliant, the second, The Paperboy, was barely watchable.

His biggest box office hit, the civil rights-themed drama The Butler, falls somewhere in the middle.

It's a simplistic, safe and sanitized movie and yet I'm glad it was a success because for a certain segment of the populace this is a story that needs to be told. Still, this film had no business being in the Oscar conversation.

It has some nice moments and some decent character work but the truly great films usually benefit from a little thing called subtlety of which, unfortunately, this film has none.

Race needs to be handled in shades of grey because its such a complex issue and fact of life but this film chooses to portray everyone as a type -- every president is a Cliff Notes version of themselves (we literally get a scene of LBJ giving orders from the toilet), the Whitaker and Winfrey characters are two-dimensional and the character of the butler's son (played by David Oyelowo) only seems to exist to inform the audience about the history of the civil rights movement.

I want to be clear though, I didn't hate this movie. I'm just disappointed in it. I feel as though in an attempt to win the embrace of mainstream audiences Daniels abandoned all the daring he showed with Precious.

Oprah Winfrey and Forest Whitaker

I also feel his decision to stock his film with recognizable stars in almost every role works against the movie. For every celebrity cameo that works is another that is just painfully distracting (John Cusack could never be a convincing Richard Nixon no matter how hard he tried).

What could have been a very compelling tale of a man forced to witness history from the sidelines almost plays like a more serious Forrest Gump, where Whitaker's lead character happens to be present for every momentous incident of the last 60 years. I don't like seeing the Black Panthers being reduced to a caricature -- or the white characters for that matter.

I do like that the film attempts pay homage to the contribution of black service workers. I hated the attacks (primarily from my fellow African-Americans) on The Help and now this film, because they dramatized this essential part of our history. But this movie lacks The Help's film's emotional impact.

In a year that delivered powerful nuanced portrayals of race relations (in 12 Years a Slave and Fruitvale Station), The Butler feels a little dated and quaint for me. I'll take it over a Tyler Perry production any day of the week but my early hesitation to see it in theaters was validated when I finally viewed the film tonight.

It's all surface level and good intentions. It looks great and it's message is unassailably noble but in 2014 I need something more. I need something better.

RIP: Philip Seymour Hoffman

Philip Seymour Hoffman in Capote

I just read the completely shocking and horrifying news that one of the greatest actors working today, Philip Seymour Hoffman, was discovered dead in his NYC apartment.

Details are scarce but he was only 46 years old and a drug overdose is suspected as the cause.

I am totally stunned by this news. I always thought of Hoffman as one of our best American character actors and someone who would have a very long, very productive career.

I am sure we will learn more about this tragedy soon but in the meantime I just wanted to pay tribute to this amazing talent by calling out some of my favorite performances of his.

He was such a chameleon, such a generous actor with no vanity. He gave so many great performances in so many movies I hardly know where to begin.

Capote (2005): His Truman Capote was captivating. He was able to rise above doing a caricature of one our most celebrated authors and revealed his troubled, pathetic soul. A fantastic underrated movie that won Hoffman a richly deserved best actor Oscar.

The Savages (2007): Alongside an equally compelling Laura Linney (as his sister), Hoffman is believable and endearing as a put-upon writer struggling to figure out how to deal with his father's deteriorating health. A bittersweet comedy that really makes you reflect on your own life choices.

Boogie Nights (1997): As the lonely and socially inept Dusty, an oddball hanger-on in the porn world of this film, Hoffman was willing to let himself look ugly and lost which made him a standout in an all-star cast which included heavy hitters like Julianne Moore and Mark Wahlberg.

Magnolia (1999): A rare "normal guy" role for Hoffman. He plays a genteel caregiver taking care of Tom Cruise's dying father (played by the late Jason Robards). He is arguably the "heart" of this sprawling, challenging film -- one of the few characters who is just trying to do good in this world.

Mission Impossible III (2006): A lot of people didn't think Hoffman had the heft to play a real villain in a mainstream blockbuster but he was awesome and scary in this J.J. Abrams installment which re-charged the franchise and made Tom Cruise believable as a secret agent again.

Punch-Drunk Love (2002): A small but uproarious part. Hoffman plays a foul-mouthed buffoon of a bad guy opposite Adam Sandler's sweet but slightly disturbed salesman. I will never stop laughing when I think of Hoffman screaming "shut shut shut up" and the top of his lungs.

The Ides of March (2011): Hoffman holds his own in a phenomenal ensemble cast in George Clooney's political drama. He has a fantastic monologue about loyalty and emerges as the arguably most noble character in the film about the dark nature of the our political process.

And these are just my personal highlights.

I could also mention The Master, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Doubt, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead or The Big Lebowski -- honestly he has so many great roles it's overwhelming.

Hoffman had been shooting the last installments of The Hunger Games, which were sure to be the most successful films he'd ever starred in -- at 46, he had so much career ahead of him. This loss is just so mind blowing to me. These roles just scratch the surface of an actor that people will revere for generations.

Mr. Hoffman, you will be missed.

'Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines' (2003): Somehow, it works

Kristanna Loken and Arnold Schwarzenegger in T3

Sequels that come out long after their last installments are almost always a huge letdown.

It's very hard for them to feel fresh and the delay builds a level of audience anticipation that can almost never be satisfied with the results.

Was Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull really so horrible?

In my opinion, no. But after nearly 20 years of rumors and excitement surrounding a new Indiana Jones film it was definitely disappointing.

In 2003 a new Terminator movie should have sucked, but it didn't.

It still has some of the cornball qualities of Terminator 2 (I don't like seeing the Terminator show affection, it just feels wrong) but it's faster paced and brings back some of the dark, brooding elements of the first film, which I appreciate.

I had serious questions about how they resolved the timeline issue (T2 seemed to be a definitive conclusion) but I like how the film paints judgment day as inevitable -- the end of T2 simply delayed the rise of the machines.

The actors all acquit themselves adequately but this was all about Arnold Schwarzenegger going out like a boss.

He would become the governor of California like this and like any good politician he wanted to exit the movie business on a high note.

This was about burnishing his image as an action hero icon and he succeeded (the film would be his highest grossing movie ever domestically after T2).

The humor in his one doesn't feel as forced (albeit except for the 'talk to the hand' gag) and I like it's knowing nods to the first two.

In the first Terminator, Schwarzenegger dons sunglasses for the pragmatic purpose of covering up his disfigured eye, in the two sequels the shades are now just a stylish part of the character's look.

T3 lacks James Cameron's vision and skill but it is endlessly watchable and entertaining and I'm so impressed that such an expensive mainstream blockbuster would retain themes about technology going corrupt and causing the end of the world. Heavy stuff for a summer movie.

Rumor has it there are plans in the works for a fifth Terminator movie. Terminator: Salvation, if memory serves, had some nifty action sequences but you felt the loss of Schwarzenegger and Christian Bale made for a surprisingly bland John Connor.

Schwarzenegger is supposed to play some role in the new one which seems like too little too late at this point. The man is 66 years old and there really is no more story to tell with his character. So the calculation can only be that there's more money to be made but with diminishing returns I fear this series will become a mockery of what it once was.

But the truth is no one expected the first Terminator to be any good 30 years ago. It was a grim sci-fi movie starring an Austrian body builder whose name people couldn't pronounce yet. And look what happened.

Expectations terminated.

Touchdown! My favorite sports movies of all time

To commemorate the Super Bowl I thought I'd take a look back at my favorite sports movies of all time -- with a few caveats of course.

I won't include comedies like Caddyshack (1980), Kingpin (1996) and Talladega Nights (2006), as much as I love those movies -- and I do -- they're not the kind of earnest sports movies I had in mind when coming up with this list.

I am also not going to include movies like Raging Bull (1980), The Wrestler (2008), The Hurricane (1999) and The Hustler (1961) (or its sequel The Color of Money (1986)) because for me they're more dramatic character studies than pure "sports films."

Ironically even though I am a huge football and basketball fan there have been very few, if any, movies about those sports which I have really loved.

I know there a lot of diehard Hoosiers (1986) fans out there, but for me that movie was just alright and I am big Gene Hackman fan. And while I am not particularly nuts about baseball -- it does tend to spawn some of the best sports movies.

Perhaps it's the old fashioned quality of the game, the sort of legendary feel of it. But for me more traditional sports like baseball and boxing almost always make for more moving, even spiritual sports films.

Rocky (1976)
One of my all-time favorite films. I really like most of its sequels as well (IV is campy fun but not very good and V is unwatchable -- but I quite like all the others). It's a simple story amazingly well-told and acted and you really feel so invested in that final fight because of the time and care put into crafting the Rocky character and the people around him.

Sylvester Stallone's career may have been overwhelmed by vanity and indulgence (his recent output has seemed like an increasingly desperate attempt to reclaim former glory) but he really tapped into something magical here.

Field of Dreams (1989)
Speaking of magical...this movie (as hokey as it is) still manages to move me. The performances are uniformly excellent -- remember when Kevin Costner was a bonafide movie star? So many indelible, great movie "moments" here. From "if you build it they will come" to James Earl Jones' incredible monologue about how timeless baseball is to Burt Lancaster's emergence into the modern world to just Ray Liotta's compelling gravitas -- this movie really warms your heart.

Bull Durham (1988)
In a way this movie is everything Field of Dreams is not, and it ironically stars Costner also, in what is probably his greatest role. Cynical, sexy and smart this movie is a showcase for its three leads (including the gorgeous Susan Sarandon and a hilarious Tim Robbins). This small-scale story really gets at how the players are and what makes them tick (sex) and how tough the game can be on the people that love it. A classic that has sadly gone forgotten over the years.

The Natural (1984)
I am a massive Robert Redford fan, and this is probably his most rousing mainstream movie star performance. The soaring score, the unabashedly sincere script and elements of fantasy make for a very attractive mix is this beautifully photographed baseball epic. Another movie that taps into the mythology and glory of baseball heroics. And it's got a magic bat!

Slap Shot (1977)
If you like your sports movies with more of an edge I highly recommend this politically incorrect romp through the minor league hockey world starring Paul Newman. He considered his role as the foul-mouthed over-the-hill team captain Reggie Dunlop his favorite and it's not hard to see why -- Newman has never been more hilarious and the raucous, crude spirit of this movie is infectious.

That's all for now folks. Enjoy the Super Bowl and go Seahawks!

'Terminator 2: Judgment Day' (1991): Cuddly but cool

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

This is undeniably one of the best action movies ever made.

It has one of my favorite villains (Robert Patrick as the T-1000), incredible effects and chases and Schwarzenegger at his badass peak.

And yet, quite a bit of it is godawful.

Edward Furlong's squeaky, prepubescent voice. Linda Hamilton's occasional wild over-acting and speechifying and the endless stream of dated, stupid one-liners ("chill out dickwad") almost derail what is arguably one of the great sequels.

But the relentless action and smart nods to the 1984 original keep Terminator 2: Judgment Day clearly in the classic column. I just wish it weren't so schizo.

On the one hand it has the same no holds barred intensity of the first film and with its bigger budget director James Cameron was able to give us more riveting visuals of the end of the world, the dominance of the terminators and the advances of the T-1000.

Robert Patrick

But on the other hand was the fact that in the 7 years that had passed between the first film and this one Schwarzenegger had become a beloved hero to kids (thanks to movies like Twins (1988) and Kindergarten Cop (1990)) and audiences at the time seemingly would not accept him as a bad guy.

So a concession was made to make him John Connor's (played by Furlong) protector instead of his would-be assassin. That wouldn't bother me if it weren't for the fact that they try to make it seem as if the Terminator can and will develop feelings and by the end of the film he's almost an E.T. like figure.

Still, this is a minor quibble. Robert Patrick is terrifying and unforgettable (best movie run ever). Schwarzenegger shows why he was such an iconic 90s movie star (I love how he coldly tells Furlong his stepparents are dead) and I do enjoy the fact that Linda Hamilton kicks some butt of her own in this, she's a real action heroine; instead of a damsel in distress.

Furthermore, this film did what a great sequel should do -- it revisited what we liked about the first film and expanded on it themes, giving us more of an appreciation for what was at stake if the evil Skynet conglomerate truly realized its vision.

Ultimately, this is a more conventional Hollywood film -- but they don't make 'em like they used to.

It was the biggest hit of its year (1991) and it featured a mature female lead instead of some hottie of the moment, it has haunting images of burning corpses on playgrounds and its villain is featured throughout in a police uniform. Plus there's a neat visual guns n' roses gag.

What more could you want?

'The Terminator' (1984): Nihilism goes mainstream

The 1985 issue of Cinefantastique brilliantly described The Terminator as "both derivative and original at the same time." The movie owes a tremendous debt to some of the films that preceded it. There's Westworld (1973), featuring robot run amok at a theme park (it later inspired the 'Itchy and Scratchy Land' episode of The Simpsons). It borrowed the silent, indestructible killer from Halloween (1978). And it features a bleak futuristic wasteland straight out of Mad Max (1979).

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Yet the movie stands on its own because of its audacious concept and its almost gleeful nihilistic spirit. It ushered in an era of the 'dark' mainstream blockbuster. It has a cold, viciousness that would never be welcome in a Spielberg or Lucas spectacle of its time. It provided a blueprint for the Christopher Nolans to come.

Like Alien (1979) it is essentially a B-movie with top-notch production values and it has a refreshing self-awareness that keeps it from ever feeling too trivial or unintentionally funny.

In fact, one of the things I love about the original is how few jokes there are in it. Schwarzenegger deadpan is always better than when he's trying to be funny.

The sequel squanders perfection with unforgivable moments like the Terminator quipping "I need a vacation." In the original incarnation he barely speaks and when he does it's only because it's absolutely necessary.

Revisiting the movie again, 30 years later, I find myself wishing Schwarzenegger had played more villains in his career (let's all collectively try to forget/not count Batman & Robin (1997)), because he is so terrific in this and he could be a truly scary presence in a film if he wanted to, even in his advanced age.

Michael Biehn

Also, in a just world Michael Biehn should have been a movie star. He has a really hard part in this film, with a lot of exposition dialogue, and he pulls it off with heroic charisma and even some truly romantic appeal. The scene where he reveals that he fell in love with Sarah Connor (played by Linda Hamilton) based on her photo is genuinely touching.

 "I came across time for you Sarah." -- C'mon, what a line!

With this and Aliens (1986) he had a nice little run going. I was happy to see that Robert Rodriguez paid homage to this 80s mainstay by giving him a prominent part in his love letter to the creature-feature genre, Planet Terror (2007).

Sure, some of the effects don't hold up great but considering the budget constraints of the production the movie looks and still plays great after all these years. James Cameron still provokes eye rolls from me, but he will always get my respect for having launched one of my all-time favorite franchises.