UPDATE: This contest has ended. Congratulations to Andy Richardson!

Greetings, fellow travellers!

In honor of Mother's Day, Kicking the Seat and Partnershub have teamed up to give one lucky reader the chance to win either A Star is Born (1976) or Cabaret (1972) on blu-ray!

To enter the "Mother's Day Movie Night" Contest, simply answer the following question in the "Comments" Section below:

"Who is your favorite movie mom of all time?"

I'll choose a winner at random to receive one of these two classic films (also chosen at random).

Contest closes at 11:59pm on Monday, May 13th, 2013.

The movie follows Titus and a group of friends on a Vegas-bound road trip, where they blow all the money he saved by not paying his mortgage for several months--money he sees as supporting a corrupt institution. Along the way, they meet people whose fortunes were wrecked by swindle and circumstance, and ask the audience to consider their role in changing a rigged system.

During our conversation, Sean mentioned that he'd like to follow up with an examination of how troubled European markets have adversely impacted the United States.

Well, less than a year later, a sequel is in the works, and you can help make it happen!

Over the next few weeks, Bailout 2's Indiegogo campaign will raise funds to send RT's Max Keiser and a new group of comedic raconteurs on a cross-continent adventure through hard-hit areas like Greece, Ireland, and Cyprus. They'll explore the roots of various financial disasters that are gradually (and not-so-gradually) making their way to our shores, and look at what other countries have done to claw their way back from the brink of ruin.

Campaign perks range from signed DVDs and posters to official producer credits to dinner with Max Keiser! The biggest perk of all, though, is helping fund what is sure to be a fun and fascinating movie made by passionate, talented, grass-roots filmmakers. If that sounds enticing, check out the Bailout trailer below, then head on over to the Indiegogo page to learn more about Bailout 2.

Note: You can also learn more about the original Bailout (and order the DVD) at USABailout.com.

UPDATE: This contest has ended. A round of applause for Mark, who wrote:

"I would bring my super bad ass ninja skills. Actually I was already there my ninja skills are that good that no knew I was the one doin all the ass kickin!"

Personally, I'd love to see Peter Jackson's take on Middle Earth Ninjas. Call it, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey to the Hospital!

Greetings, fellow travellers!

To celebrate its home video release, Kicking the Seat and Partnershub have teamed up to give one lucky reader the chance to win The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey on Blu-ray Combo Pack!

J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic adventure follows the journey of Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an amazing quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of thirteen dwarves led by the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakenshield. Their journey will take them into the Wild, through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs and Sorcerers.

From Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson comes The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the first of a trilogy of films adapting the enduringly popular masterpiece The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien.

To win the "Embarkin' with Bilbo" Contest, simply answer the following question via Comment Card:

"What special skill would you contribute to Bilbo's dragon-slaying adventure?"

Would you be legendary charmer, known for lulling even the most ferocious beasts into submission? Or would your axe skills give Sauron night terrors? I'm looking for creativity here, and my favorite entry will receive Kicking the Seat's number-four top film of 2012 on Blu-ray Combo Pack (which includes the movie on Blu-ray, DVD, and Ultraviolet Digital Copy)!

Contest closes at 11:59pm on Friday, April 5th, 2013.

A Tribute to Roger Ebert (1942-2013)

Even Roger Ebert's death is a testament to great storytelling: in a plot twist few of us saw coming, the seventy-year-old bastion of modern film criticism died just two days after posting a touching hiatus announcement in the Chicago Sun-Times. He said doctors had discovered even more cancer in his body, and the aggressive treatments he required warranted taking a "leave of presence"--handing over the regular movie-reviewing duties to a rotating cast of hand-picked favorites, while occasionally returning to write about the jucier pictures.

He also mentioned ongoing developments in the "Ebert brand", which didn't interest me all that much. He was a man, after all, and not a commodity. But in the Internet Era, I guess we're all just ones and zeroes, the marketed and the marketed to.

For a few moments, I wondered about Ebert's career, and if he would have achieved living-legend status had he come of age as a critic today. Or would his never having started as a professional reviewer in 1967 denied his beloved career the cache it has now, relegating "film critic" to the same status as "collectible-candy-wrapper expert"?

I owe my passion for and understanding of the movies to two men: Roger Ebert and my high school Film Studies teacher, Richard C. Jones. Both loved watching, dissecting, and discussing films with people whose minds had yet to be blown by their wisdom. As a kid, I would eagerly await the Friday paper and jump right to Ebert's column for a witty takedown of that weekend's boneheaded new releases (or even an endorsement of something worthwhile). I took that foundation with me to Mr. Jones's class, and for a solid year was blessed to have two brilliant, warm, and humorous voices guide me through the classics.

A few years later, I had the privilege of meeting Ebert at a critics' screening of The Fifth Element. I couldn't believe we were breathing the same air, much less sitting a few feet from one another. After waffling and whining to my girlfriend in the minutes leading up to showtime, I got it together just enough to approach him. He was kind, engaged, and curious about me, and accepted my stammering flattery with a coolness that suggested I wasn't the first sweaty teenager to say "Hello".

(I met Gene Siskel at the same screening. And while I won't use a memorial piece to speak ill of the dead, I'll gladly do so if you hit me up in person.)

Over time, I would meet my hero again at book signings and see him on-stage at his Overlooked Film Festival in Urbana, IL (now called "Ebertfest"). Even as cancer and the ensuing surgeries robbed him of the ability to speak and made him, frankly, uncomfortable to look at, he was always ROGER EBERT--a smooth and insightful writer who proved that the human body is just a shell for the wild spirit within us all. As an out-and-proud atheist, I doubt he'd agree with that particular analysis, but he always made me feel connected to a larger something-or-other after every encounter.

I don't use the word "hero" lightly. When I made the ludicrous decision to become a film critic, Ebert was my guy--not necessarily in terms of style, but in the way he always put himself on the page; the way he made it okay to look at movies subjectively, rather than pretend that they were watched by cold, divinely selected arbiters of taste who didn't bring actual life experiences into the theatre with them.

Mostly, I admired his ability to bring me along for the ride of his pieces, even if I didn't agree with some of them. I used to joke that all the near-death experiences in recent years had made him so appreciative of life that he'd allowed himself to love some pretty heinous trash. But even where our tastes didn't align, I could rarely argue with his arguments' merits.

Sidebar: Earlier this afternoon, I was excoriated on a podcast. Those of you who follow this site are aware of some recent Internet drama involving my reviews and the producer of Swamphead. Well, that producer has a weekly talk show, and on last night's episode, he took a couple minutes towards the end to tear my abilities as a film critic to shreds. He didn't mention me by name (not that it would have mattered if he had), but in those profane, horrific moments, I felt about as low, angry, and sad as I had in a long, long time.

I seriously considered throwing myself off of something tall, but then I read about Ebert's passing. Emotions being a mystery and all, the news kind of cheered me up. Not that I'm happy he's gone, but thinking about Roger Ebert has always made me happy. He's weathered decades of criticism, parody, and hatred, but still went out on top--loving his job, living his passion, and not letting hurt feelings get in the way of writing.

So, yes, unsurprisingly, my non-obituary for Roger Ebert wound up being mostly about me. But I can think of no greater tribute to one of the century's greatest thinkers, writers, and supporters of the arts than to soldier on in the face of doubt and to never forget how cool it is to sit in the dark and watch movies all day.

UPDATE: Thanks to a weekend of sold-out shows and the generosity of one very hard-working star, The Music Box is delighted to announce that Nick Offerman will be on-hand for one last Q&A at today's 2:30pm screening!

These $10 tickets are disappearing, so drag your ass out of bed and pre-order yours now!

Fellow Chicagoans! The coolest thing blowing into town this week is not our four-thousandth winter storm.

No, it's The Music Box Theatre's Somebody Up There Likes Me premiere event!

Bob Byington's quirky comedy is about the charmed life of one Max Youngman (Keith Poulson), who appears to be blessed with a dry sense of irony, accidental good fortune, and eternal youth. Over a period of three-plus decades, Max, his best friend Sal (Nick Offerman) and his second wife Lyla (Jess Weixler) stumble through infidelities, divorce, therapy, and poverty in a breezy series of surreal jumps forward in time.

What makes this weekend's screenings so special? Well, if being the first to see this new indie comedy isn't enough, how's about attending a special Q&A with star Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation)?!

That's right, Mr. Offerman will be on-hand after each of the four premiere screenings to interact with fans!

Showtimes are 7:30pm and 9:45pm on Friday, March 8th and Saturday, March 9th. Tickets are going fast, so pre-order yours today!

For more information, head on over to the film's event page at musicboxtheatre.com!

The Music Box Theatre is located at 3733 N. Southport Ave. Chicago, IL 60613. For showtimes, call (773) 871-6604.

UPDATE: This contest has ended. Congratulations to Leslie!

Holy mackerel, it's contest time again!

Our dear friends at Partnershub have teamed up with Kicking the Seat to give one lucky reader a chance to win an official Bible companion book, based on The History Channel's epic, 10-part miniseries, The Bible!

So, how do you win the "Seen Any Good Books Lately" Contest? It's simple:

In the "Comments" section below, leave the name of your favorite film that was adapted from a book.

You don't need to write a novel about why it was so great; I'm just looking for a name. I'll pick a winner at random, who will be sent one of three books (also selected at random): A Story of God and All of Us (HARDCOVER), A Story of God and All of Us (REFLECTIONS), or A Story of God and All of Us (YOUNG READERS).

Entries must be in by 11:59pm on Sunday, March 17th, 2013.

Hey, fellow Chicagoans and beloved out-of-towners! If you're sick of waiting on cinema to get over its winter doldrums, The Music Box Theatre has whipped up a vat of chicken soup for the movie lover's soul!

The 70mm Film Festival kicks off tonight with a big-screen double-bill of heady, classic masterpieces: Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo at 6:30pm, followed by Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey at 9pm.

What's so special about 70mm film? For starters, it's film, and that's becoming a bigger and bigger deal nowadays. As cineplexes convert to digital presentation exclusively, and boutique theatres such as The Music Box become cineaste safe-havens, watching movies in this format with a large audience will soon be as rare and as culturally revered an experience as Woodstock was to my parents' generation.

Second, all of the films playing tonight through the 28th are presented in the way they were meant to be seen. You'll get to enjoy West Side Story, Lifeforce, The Master, Hamlet, and a handful of others with a clarity and level of detail that is, quite literally, twice that of traditional 35mm projection. And let me silence the blu-ray/home theatre argument right now with a gentle reminder that not all of these films are available in high definition.

So there you have it: excuses = banished!

Tickets are $9.25 for individual screenings and $70 for a limited-edition festival pass (check out the event's Web page for more information). Please join me in supporting these beautifully presented motion pictures, and be on the lookout for special 70mm Film Festival episodes of the KtS Podcast!

I hope you had as much fun at the movies as I did in 2012. Even as the global artistic community laughed at Mayan end-times predictions, they worked twice as hard to make humanity's "last" films memorable.

It's as if every major studio head kicked off 2010 by saying, "Look, we're not gonna be around in a couple years, so go crazy. You wanna update 21 Jump Street and The Three Stooges? Knock yourself out. But make 'em great, 'cause sequels just ain't happening. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to give notes on my lunar compound blueprints."

In face, there were so many great films that, for the first time in years, I had a hell of a time narrowing my favorites down to a "top ten". At one point, I'd considered expanding the list to twelve or fifteen. But as much as I adored The Cabin in the Woods, Ted, Snow White and the Huntsman, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and Rock of Ages, they didn't stick with me in the same way as those that made the final cut.

Before we get to it, let's talk caveats. First, what you might consider "glaring omissions" are not omissions at all. To be fair to you and to myself, the "Top 10 of '12" is comprised only of the films I managed to see last year. As much as I wanted to squeeze in Lincoln, Les Miserables, and Beasts of the Southern Wild, I simply didn't have the time or the money (mostly the time). Were I paid to alternately sit in a theatre and pound away on a keyboard, this list might look quite different. As it stands, I still have a demanding, wholly unrelated day-job that makes seeing everything impossible.

Second, this is not your typical "Best of" list. There are a lot of genre films on here, which may raise some eyebrows. If you think my decision to elevate horror movies and found-footage flicks over sweeping historical dramas is some indication of immaturity, I suggest you actually watch all the films that made the cut and then get back to me. I'll put the creative and emotional highs of any movie on this list up against Zero Dark Thirty--which, frankly, is struggling to make my top-thirty slot.

Agree or not, I welcome your feedback. Here's hoping that 2013 is just as switched-on as 2012.

Enjoy!

10. Dead Weight  Just when I thought apocalypse dramas and zombie movies were played out, along comes Adam Bartlett and John Pata's stirring, meditative twist on both genres. Dead Weight has the best "people are the real monsters" conflict since Romero's Dawn of the Dead. The filmmakers wrench every ounce of greatness from their indie budget and talented cast by focusing on performance and ignoring graphic violence completely. The draw isn't evisceration or CGI head explosions; it's the inventiveness with which Pata and Bartlett weave road picture, survival picture, and love story elements into a sad, sprawling tapestry. And kudos to star Joe Belknap for selling the hell out of his Charlie character--who would have been at the center of an entirely different kind of horror movie, had the world not ended.

9. Sinister  What happens when you throw Ethan Hawke into a "fictitious version" of a found-footage movie, co-written by a former Ain't it Cool News reporter? The answer is as surprising as the film is creepy. Creators Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill deliver a film that is part The Shining, part The Ring, and all balls-to-the-wall conviction. They're not afraid to kill kids, have kids kill their parents and siblings, and cut out the requisite "climactic monster chase scene". This movie is about obsession and choice, and the idea that the bogeyman doesn't need to be a hitman: given a nudge in the wrong direction, people have got unconscionable acts down to a science.

8. Chronicle  No one asked for another played-out-genre cocktail, but Josh Trank and Max Landis said "Trust us" before beer-bonging Chronicle down our collective throats. I've never been such a happy drunk. More than a superhero story, more than a shaky-cam found-footage movie, Chronicle is a story about bullying and the iffy bonds of high school relationships. What if Carrie White had grown up in the Document Everything Age, and then found out she was Superman? That's not precisely what happens here, but star Dane DeHaan turns in one of the saddest, most quietly terrifying performances since Sissy Spacek swung by the prom in 1976.

7. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World  Sometimes, it comes down to a song. The climactic scene in which Steve Carell carries a sleeping Keira Knightley to the helicopter that will reunite her with family on Earth's last day has stuck with me since early summer--thanks in large part to The Hollies' beautiful "The Air That I Breathe". The rest of Lorene Scafaria's dramedy is also twistedly, romantically beautiful, but those last fifteen minutes...damn. Seeking a Friend, like The Cabin in the Woods, is unafraid to stare at the tragic comedy of its dark premise. A lesser, cowardly film would have blinked.

6. Argo  In a time when perusing Wikipedia has made reading history books as out-moded a concept as segregated lunch counters, Ben Affleck's Argo makes history cool again. The film tells a formerly classified side-story about the Iranian hostage crisis, in which a group of American embassy workers is hidden in the Canadian ambassador's apartment. Affleck's CIA consultant character devises a wild plot to whisk them out of the country as members of a Star Wars knock-off's film crew--which necessitates putting an actual movie into production. Where Argo lacks twists and turns, it compensates with great performances, nail-biting drama, and the fun of learning about world events through the cracked lens of early-80s sci-fi.

5. Dredd  One of the greatest would-be franchise kick-off movies in recent memory is also one of 2012's biggest flops. It's a crime that we'll likely never see more of Pete Travis's dystopian future society and the iron-willed lawman who protects it. More exciting and emotionally satisfying than the sloppy, overly-hyped Dark Knight Rises, Dredd not only proved to be a brutal, honest-to-God superhero movie, but also gave 3D a reason to exist--thanks largely to the artistry of Oscar-winning cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle.

4. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey  I embarked on my own unexpected journey last year by revisiting--and falling in love with--Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It's a good thing, too, because I was able to slip right into the world of The Hobbit and enjoy a ride that I would have found torturous a decade ago. More than Martin Freeman and Andy Serkis' touching performances, Jackson's decision to shoot his new trilogy in high-frame-rate IMAX 3D has (temporarily) legitimized the disposable-plastic-glasses industry and given movie fans a real reason to head to the multiplex. Missing out on The Hobbit in the way the director intended is like settling for 2001 or Lawrence of Arabia on a 13" black-and-white TV.

3. Looper  Looper is a hyper-violent, futuristic time-travel movie starring Bruce Willis. I don't blame you for saying "no thanks", considering the actor is at almost the same level of over-saturation as he was before The Sixth Sense came out. But he's made himself cool and interesting again by teaming up with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Rian Johnson--whose heartfelt sci-if crime drama brings brains back to the blockbuster. In the same way that folks who usually avoid these movies should give it a chance immediately, I must warn fans of badass 'splosion pictures that this one is for grownups. Not everyone can handle the mid-film tonal shift or follow the themes from start to finish. But for the switched-on and adventurous, brain-gasms don't get much joyously messier than this.

2. Django Unchained  The more I think about it, the more uncomfortable I get with placing this in the number two spot. Django Unchained is a wonderful movie that's all but crippled by a circuitous, tacked-on, twenty-five minute epilogue and director Quentin Tarantino's baffling Aussie accent. Thanks to home-video technology, though, I'll soon be able to chapter-forward from the end of the Candie Land shoot-out to Django's triumphant return, and pretend it was put together like that in the first place. See this on the big screen, and marvel at Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Samuel L. Jackson (not kidding about the last two). But feel free to zone out in the last act of this flawed masterpiece.

1. Cloud Atlas  Tom Tykwer and Andy and Lana Wachowski's centuries-spanning ode to fate was the biggest, most satisfying surprise in a year of big, satisfying surprises. Of course, no one went to see it. A triumph of art, heart, and philosophy, Cloud Atlas isn't just a New Age celebrity vanity project; it's a great ray of hope for a world in which even the most minor of daily struggles can seem like an epic battle to keep everything together. The filmmakers posit that there's something to this, and that every decision we make will not only ripple through the world, but also through time. Don't worry: the film is also very exciting, funny, and breathtakingly beautiful. For those of us who not only keep our brains turned on at the movies but also sharpen pencils, smooth the corners on our notebook paper, and brew two pots of coffee beforehand (mentally speaking, of course), Cloud Atlas is the cinematic Bar Exam of human experience. In this case, the test itself is the reward.