This might be painful for you, but it’s important to remember. Join us as we think back to 2011′s most forgettable flicks.

Battle: Los Angeles

Battle: Los Angeles shocked everyone when it enjoyed a surprisingly bigger opening than anyone expected. It actually started a trend of studios eager to buy anything that featured a science fiction plotline, no matter how flimsy. Though not a terrible movie (Michelle Rodriguez gets punched by an alien), it was just missing a certain ingredient and proved almost instantly forgettable. If memory serves, they kill the aliens with water or something.

The Green Hornet

Seth Rogen lost all that weight for nothing. It took a lot of effort to bring The Green Hornet to the screen, but sadly, most of that effort was spent wrangling the behind-the-scenes egos of director Michel Gondry and almost star Stephen Chow. Another obstacle the film faced was being overshadowed by the release of The Green Lantern. The name similarities only confused the baby, and The Green Hornet was asked to stop coming around so much.

The Rite

Anthony Hopkins versus demons should be a no-brainer hit. In 1993. However, he’s got too many crappy movies in his past for audiences to bother with this generic exorcism tale. Let’s just all rewatch that movie where he acts like a monkey.

A few sci-fi pitches were picked up on Monday, and now there’s word that two more fictional scientific stories have been bought. Fox ignored the existence of Jurassic Park III and went ahead and bought a pitch from Jurassic Park III writer Peter Buchman. Meanwhile, Paramount has bought a pitch from Apollo 18‘s Brian Miller. There are no details available about either. So don’t even try to copy them.

I’m all for more science-fiction stories as long as they are good. Maybe we should run them by Roger Ebert so he doesn’t go house again like he did with his Battle: Los Angeles review. Otherwise, I’m concerned the studios are setting themselves up for failure by jumping on the wrong trend. Ask yourself, was the real star of Battle: Los Angeles the special effects or Aaron Eckhart’s chin crater? (via /Film)

Elsewhere on the new release schedule, the news was not as inspiring. Red Riding Hood, with its apparently insufficiently sexy Big Bad Wolf, came in a distant 3rd behind golden oldie Rango. And, excitingly enough, we had a genuine flop this weekend in Mars Needs Moms, which cost 150 million dollars to make, and only grossed 6.8 million dollars over the weekend. Maybe this means Robert Zemeckis will make a movie with real people in it again. (via The AV Club)

A word from Taryn: “I can rock Mario Bros. games like you have no idea.”

In the summer of 1979, a group of friends in a small Ohio town witness a catastrophic train crash while making super 8 movie and soon suspect that it was not an accident.  Shortly after, unusual disappearances and inexplicable events begin to take place in town, and the local Deputy tries to uncover the truth –  something more terrifying than any of them could have imagined.

There’s a rumor that says the official trailer will debut this weekend at Battle: Los Angeles. Then fanboys will get to examine the trailer for clues, examine those clues for clues, and examine their lives and whether they’re using them properly.

Produced by Steven Spielberg, and starring Elle Fanning, Amanda Michalka, and Kyle Chandler, Super 8 crashes into theaters June 10th. (Collider)

Battle: Los Angeles is exactly what you expect it to be and it delivers on that: Team of marines all with their personal issues, some civilians for the heart, rah rah patriotism and big explosions.

Staff Sgt. Nantz (Aaron Eckhart) is too old for this shit. He’s about to retire and has one last troop to train. He’s notorious because his last squad didn’t make it. He had to make a tough call and he’s living with it. We meet the gang. Lt. Martinez (Ramon Rodriguez) has a pregnant wife. Cpl. Harris (Ne-Yo) is planning a wedding. Everyone gets a defining prologue.

Then aliens land. Seeing an invasion of Santa Monica beach via news cameras is pretty cool. Then Martinez has to take the unit into battle on the streets of Santa Monica. They should call it Battle: Santa Monica. The military has a blockade at Lincoln Ave. and they’ve got three hours to evacuate civilians before an air strike.

The war zone effects look really good. It actually does look like the streets of Los Angeles are burning (downtown in wide shots, but mostly close up rubble.) There are some great shots of decimated freeways. The action escalates well. The finale really is the biggest battle, and there are plenty of thrilling sequences before. Nantz’s decoy mission with the walkie talkies incorporates tactics with alien drone ships.

The camera could shake less but it’s okay. At least the excuse could be it’s Black Hawk Down style, with brief glimpses of the aliens at first and disorienting perspective. It’s honest though. They teach you the geography and identify locations with on screen text. You can mostly tell who is who. Everyone has enough visible distinctions, including war paint, so you know it’s “that guy” even if you don’t remember his name.

Midway into the operation they run into civilians Michele (Bridget Moynahan) and Joe (Michael Pena) and his kid. There’s no juicy civilian drama. Nobody’s a reprehensible convict or anything. Just a veterinarian who can get her hands dirty on an alien carcass, and a family man with kids. Other military stragglers like Tech Sgt. Santos (Michelle Rodriguez) join up to explain how the alien ships work.

Somehow you do care about these characters. You want Lt. Martinez to make it back to his wife so no one has to deliver the letter he wrote to her. You can see that Nantz is visibly shaken by his alien encounter. You can totally tell who’s going to make it and who’s not by movie rules, but it works.

Q: How challenging is it for you to find a fulfilling character in a big production?

Ramon Rodriguez: It’s tricky. What helps is that you get to see him when he’s not at work. So for me, it was really important to know this guy, know what is he doing when he’s not on base, what’s he like and what does he really care about? What matters in his life? It’s his wife and his baby on the way. Those are his major concerns, his priorities in his life right now. Then his platoon of course. Originally, believe it or not, they only did my backstory. They only showed me and my wife. But when we shot that scene where they showed me, my wife and kissing the baby, they realized it attaches you emotionally now. Now you’re invested in this character. So then they did it for all the other marines. So that wasn’t in the script originally. I thought that was a cool adjustment on their part, that they realized in order to hook people in emotionally, you’ve kind of got to show some other parts in there.

Q: Are those real helicopters you have to shout over on the base?

RR: Yes, yeah. That was a real base, those are real helicopters. I think they may have CGI’ed a couple more in but for the most part they’re real. Those Apaches and those birds taking off, man, it was spectacular.

Q: Are you aware of the cameras as they’re following you in the trenches?

RR: For the most part, you know exactly where they are. Every once in a while, Jonathan would have a camera doing a wide shot that you wouldn’t know where it was. The ones that are up in your face, you know that they’re up in your face. You see it, you feel it and those camera operators were working really, really hard. They were running with us which is not easy with that equipment on their shoulder.

Q: Are you still auditioning for movies like this or are they being offered now?

RR: No, I’m still auditioning. Bosley was a straight offer. They offered that to me. That was exciting and interesting but I have had TV offers before that I’ve turned down.

Q: How excited are you to have a character like Bosley?

RR: I’m excited because he gets to be a complicated guy that can be a gentleman, suave, protective kind of mother hen type of character towards the Angels but also has his brooding. He’s got a depth to him. He’s got a past, he’s got a history that he’s dealing with so it’s not like he’s just this guy with the angels. He’s going to have some depth to him. I’m trying to layer all that stuff in right now.

Q: Is it significant that it’s going to be a Latin Bosley?

RR: No, no. Just as I think it wasn’t significant that Bernie Mac did his version or Bill Murray did his version. There may be moments where you may realize oh yeah, he’s Latin but I’m not coming out there speaking Spanish the whole time.

Q: Will your Bosley get out into the field?

RR: Absolutely. I think that’s one of the main things, one of the biggest differences besides age and look between him and the old Bosley, to David Doyle to be specific, is he’s going to be involved a lot more. He knows how to handle himself. He can use you against yourself. If you throw a punch at him, he won’t just punch you right back. He’ll use it but I prefer the Angels to be the more engaging big kicks, punches all that type of stuff.

Battle: Los Angeles invades theaters Friday. “Charlie’s Angels” might be coming to your TV sets this fall.

Battle: Los Angeles hits theaters this Friday. And while alien invasion movies are nothing new in Hollywood, the film’s cutting-edge special effects promise moviegoers an awe-inspiring cinematic experience. With filmgoers poised to witness the city of Los Angeles reduced to rubble, we thought we’d look back a nine great cinematic demolitions of tinsel town.

Click here now to see all the Sony “Action Unleashed” DVDs!

War of the Worlds – 1953

One of the oldest alien invasion films, War of the Worlds is still widely considered one of the best. And while the special effects might seem tame by today’s standards, at the time they were state of the art, and the film set the bar by which other movies were judged. So, show some damn respect.

Earthquake – 1974

When it comes to destroying Los Angeles on film, aliens aren’t the only culprits. Charlton Heston and George Kennedy starred in Earthquake, a film that managed to wow audiences despite the ridiculous plot and poor reviews. Who would have thought that special effects would trump critical reception?

The Day After Tomorrow – 2004

Speaking of poor reviews, The Day After Tomorrow was a ridiculous film. But there’s no denying that watching Los Angeles get destroyed by a series of tornadoes was a lot of fun. If only they could have removed all the dialogue from the rest of the film, it might be more highly regarded.

Skyline – 2010

Aliens are at it again in Skyline, and as always, their sites are fixed squarely on Los Angeles. But this film managed to put a twist on an old classic. Rather than using laser weapons to destroy humanity on the ground, the aliens in this film used a tractor beam to draw their victims up.

Volcano – 1997

Tommy Lee Jones stars in this idiotic tale of a volcano springing up in the center of Los Angeles near the La Brea Tar Pits. Having been to the tar pits, I think a volcano would go a long way toward livening up the place.

Escape From LA – 1996

Los Angeles isn’t totally destroyed in this John Carpenter adventure film. An earthquake causes the valleys surrounding the city to flood, turning what’s left into an island. The government then decides to use the city as a prison, sending degenerates from the rest of the country to rot in the filthy cesspool. The metaphor was a little to literal for my taste.

ID4 1996

The special effects in Independence Day were groundbreaking, and the film was a huge success at the box office. But even so, the scene at the end of this clip where the dog jumps to safety ruins the entire film.

2012 – 2009

I’ve never seen 2012, so I don’t exactly know what is causing the wholesale destruction of Los Angeles in this scene. I’m even more perplexed about where all that stuff is falling. But I will admit it looks cool, and on this list, that’s almost all that matters.

Terminator 2- 1991

The time spent on the destruction of Los Angeles in Terminator 2: Judgment Day is probably shorter any other scene on the list. But the realism involved and the fact that it actually fits into the overall story makes it, by far, the most chilling.

I don’t usually get technical in my interviews with filmmakers. The details of visual effects aren’t usually as exciting as the end result, but the reality of Battle: Los Angeles seemed worth exploring. CGI usually gives itself away, but shots of L.A. burning under an alien attack held up with all the on set footage of the city.

Director Jonathan Liebesman was so engaging in explaining the effects, I went with him for a little while. He actually made me understand why other CGI looks fake but his looked real, so I hope that comes across to the reader. Oh yeah, and he’s going to do it for the sequel Wrath of the Titans too.

Q: Shouldn’t it be Battle: Santa Monica?

JL: It moves into Los Angeles, you’re on a freeway by about page 50 and then you are in downtown Los Angeles at the end. Right?

Q: But it’s the Santa Monica coastline invasion.

JL: Yeah, I think it’s a nice visual touchstone to start it off with.

Q: How do you make shots of burning Los Angeles look real?

JL: Okay, so you know what’s pretty amazing is you can actually take stills, literally. You can literally take still photos of Los Angeles.

Q: You just animate destruction on the still?

JL: Exactly but you can even go further. What you can do in break up the still. You Photoshop destruction onto the buildings and track that in, so if the camera pans, the destruction remains on the building it’s supposed to be no matter where the camera goes, in 2D space or 3D space. It’s amazing what you can do.

Q: So you do your camera move on a static photograph?

JL: You can do that. You can actually take a video camera and do a move, with a piece of paper with a grid. Track that move, put that move onto the still if that’s what you want to do. Or you can just do the move in the actual place and just track the move in the real place, but you can take a still and put a 2D move on the still.

Q: The CGI in your movie doesn’t look like CGI. What makes all the bad CGI look so fake?

JL: I think a big deal for me is CGI looks a lot better in daylight. CGI looks a lot better when you have highlights on it, like specular hits. For example, this table here in the sunlight would be fantastic in CGI. Did you see the new Harry Potter. Remember there’s the scene in that kitchen where there’s that creature that’s walking around on the table?

Q: Uh, sorry, I don’t remember which creature is which.

JL: I know, there’s so many but you see how my hand goes into the light and the light goes bright there? That will look great. Interaction is what makes CGI. My favorite is Jurassic Park when the dinosaur eats the leaves on the tree and they fall down. It’s the interaction that helps make it real plus putting it in sunlight I think very helpful. I think nighttime CGI is very difficult to make look good.

Q: That’s counterintuitive. Most artists think that night will hide it.

JL: And they do. To me, the best stuff, that’s why I think District 9 works so well is just broad, bright daylight. Look at Transformers. It looks so good when the glint’s coming. It’s also the textures you use. Someone asked me why did I make the [aliens] biomechanical, and there were a lot of story reasons, but I do remember now one of the reasons is the mechanical part of it is much easier to make realistic than the biology.

Q: Are you working on Wrath of the Titans now?

JL: Yes, and I will employ a lot of what we’re talking about into that. So there’s scenes with creatures, all of them I’m trying to play in broad daylight and bring the style that you saw in Battle: Los Angeles to that so it’s a grounded realistic style in a fantasy world. And redesign the costumes so that it feels more grounded and real.

Q: Would that be quite different than Louis Leterrier’s sweeping style?

JL: I keep saying this because it’s important. Louis was a mentor of mine and none of this is badmouthing Louis because I admire The [Incredible] Hulk, I love his stuff. I think my style is a much more subjective style. I want to be much more like there with Perseus and subjective. The extreme version is the Bourne movies of that kind of style. Chris Nolan, Aronofsky does that a lot. He’s always following his characters. So I love that kind of stuff and I like being with them. I think in Greek mythology film I have not seen that.

Q: Do you get to create new monsters?

JL: Yeah, absolutely. No, 100%. It’s just a continuation of the story. The story here is about how the gods die essentially. It’s the death of the gods and how we go from this fantastical world to something we recognize today which I like.

Q: But there are plenty of Greek characters we haven’t seen yet.

JL: Tons, huge and we’re going to use lots of them.

Q: Now that you’ve shown you can do a movie like Battle: Los Angeles, what can you do next?

JL: Dude, I don’t know. Hopefully just have my idea taken more seriously by the studio and more input on the scripts, that kind of stuff. Not to sound unambitious but just to be able to do stuff better.

Q: That’s actually refreshing to emphasize the quality of script.

JL: No, I just haven’t had the chance to do a great script so it’s working towards that.

Her latest role is as a Tech Sergeant in Battle: Los Angeles. A squad of Marines battling aliens runs into her, so she can explain some of the electromagnetic details that will be important to the plot later. She gave me a hug when we met up again, so that got the interview off to a good start.

Q: You always talk about the masculine and feminine in the same body. Does that have to be either a female body or a male body?

MR: No, that’s the beauty of it. It’s universally human that way.

Q: When did you start thinking about this concept?

MR: When I started researching more esoteric stuff about five years ago. I started diving into alchemy and the history of alchemy and Manly P Hall books, and I kept seeing this recurring theme in mythology. The recurring theme was this embodiment of masculinity and femininity throughout all these gods that were talked about in the esoteric books that I’d read. Being born you have your chromosomes and what not. I just feel like really a human’s journey is really about both factors to be complete as a human. Ultimately I think that’s the goal is just finding the balance. I just think that more people should be exploring that in scripts.

Q: How do you balance it in real life?

MR: You know, I’m still working on that, buddy. Obviously I got some issues because I’m such a tomboy, yeah, eventually I’ll find the right guy and hopefully I’ll be able to explore it more but for now, I’m just researching as much as possible.

Q: You are hot though. Wouldn’t you want to play it up just once as a sultry seductress role?

MR: You know, I’m not so interested in exploring the sexual aspects of myself but definitely I would like to be in something other than what I’ve done for the last 10 years for sure. I’m open to exploring it but I’d need the genius to see behind the veil of masculine butchiness if you will. If a really good director comes up to me and says I want you to embody this, and it’s not anything that you’ve ever done before and I want you to really go to your femininity and dive into your estrogen and bring this out, girl, because I know you’ve got it in you, I will give 150,000% to that director.

Q: Who will carry on the torch you’re passing?

MR: I don’t know. At the end of the day, I really do hope that there’s more of an exploitation of Angelina type characters, where there is this embodiment, this balance between the two worlds. I don’t want to perpetuate the idea that in order to be strong, you need to be an alpha male, a physical alpha male. I just feel like that’s a farce and I don’t want to perpetuate that. But then there are women who really enjoy being tomboys and it is within their nature to just naturally be this way and they enjoy it. If that’s your path, then that’s great. I just don’t want to perpetuate the idea that in order to be strong, you need to be like a man because that’s not true. That’s the biggest lie on the planet, you know. My whole thing is if that’s the torch I’m passing, I’m not so sure if I’d like to pass it.

Q: For Battle: Los Angeles, did you ever bring up the possibility of addressing real issues women in the military might face?

MR: We tried to do that. The original script attacked that, like gnarly, and we took it all out because I feel like the only solution to issues like that is showing the alternative. I’m with Mother Teresa on that. You guys are rallying for peace, you’r fighting against war but it defeats the purpose. Right there, you’re fighting for peace. Well, when you have a celebration of peace you can call Mother Teresa. It’s the same thing with anything. I feel like you need to offer a solution and when you offer the solution that is the best that a human being can do at fixing a problem. Addressing a problem, you’re adding more fire to the flame, honey. I feel the same way about everything, like protesting. Create the solution. But it’s awesome. Everything has its role. If it weren’t for protesters, people wouldn’t know there are issues so everything’s got a place in the world. I’m just not so sure if I want a part of everything.

Q: You’re the only female officer in the movie, and the only other female character is a civilian. You seem to fit in with the guys, but do men have more problems fitting in with female casts?

MR: Depends. Depends on his charm factor. Ultimately that’s anything in life in social situations depends on your charm factor. So it depends on the guy. If he’s a dick, he’s going to have a hard time. If he’s a nice guy and he’s charming, he’s going to have it easy being surrounded by women. As a matter of fact, he’d probably find it incredibly easy.

Q: In Fast & Furious, did you ever think Letty was the mastermind and faking her death to set Dom up?

MR: Oh my God. There’s no body, man. That’s all I gotta say. There’s no body, so.

Q: I thought that had to be the twist. Not that I wanted you to be a villain, but at least you’d still be in the game.

MR: I don’t know where that’s going to go. We’ll see. I guess it also depends how this one does and I think it’s going to do incredibly well because there aren’t a lot of people like Vin Diesel and Dwayne. Just to see those two go at it, I’d pay the ticket just to see them go at it.

Q: In real life, are you into boxing, cars and surfing, like the movies you’ve gotten to do?

MR: I’m into cars. I love jumping out of planes, haven’t done that in movies. I love adrenaline. I do. It’s nice but I don’t race. I don’t race anymore. I used to, got too many tickets. Now I’m like one point away from losing my license. I’m like nah, maybe I should chill out, buy a Prius, give up the Beamer. I miss it. I miss racing. I think it’s fun. Going to the track is awesome. I think I might go to Arizona and just take a course just for the hell of it. That stuff is fun. I like shooting. I like going to the range and shooting. I’m an awful shot. Anybody can beat me in the gun range but I can unload a cli faster than anybody.

Battle: Los Angeles invades theaters Friday.

Director: Jonathan Liebesman

Cast: Michelle Rodriguez, Aaron Eckhart, Bridget Moynahan

Synopsis: A Marine platoon faces off against an alien invasion in Los Angeles.

Release Date: March 11, 2011

UFO Investigator Bill Burns described the WWII era event. “There really was a Battle of Los Angeles involving we believe a UFO because at least that’s what the war department said,” Burns said. “It took place January of 1942, weeks after Pearl Harbor when an unidentified flying object flew right here, Santa Monica Beach and Redondo Beach. Thousands and thousands of anti-aircraft shells because the batteries were mobilized, were fired at this object. Searchlights lit up the night sky. They couldn’t hit it. They couldn’t bring it down. What was it? The official story was it was a balloon. Air raid wardens in Santa Monica and Redondo Beach and the City of L.A. were told that it was an unidentified flying object. A piece of it came down and I hope to get my hands on that piece and analyze it but 1942, Battle of LA was a real battle with probably a UFO over Santa Monica bay.”

To back Burns up, two military personnel shared their stories of UFO encounters. Capt. Robert Salas was a missile launch officer in 1967. He controlled the 10 millies at the Oscar-1 launch facility.

“On March 24^th, the main guard calls down and says, ‘Sir, I’m looking at the front gate and I see this glowing red object that’s oval shaped. It’s about 30 feet long and it’s just hovering over the front gate.’” Salas said. “The missiles started going no go. They were shutting down. We got guns and control system failure. We have a way of querying the system and they all had guns and control system failures while this object was still up there. The guards had no way of perpetrating any kind of a hoax. They had no control over these missiles. By the way, I couldn’t go up and look at this UFO because we were locked in. I made sure I talked to the security man and he confirmed absolutely that what he was telling me was the truth.”

Col. Charles Halt had an even more elaborate encounter in 1980. Long story short, he was chasing flying objects with multicolored lights and laser beams. “

“One of the objects to the south at very high speed approached, stopped overhead, 2 or 3, maybe 4000 feet and sent down a beam at our feet,” Halt described. “The best way I can equate it is a laser beam. It didn’t radiate like a light does. It came straight down. It was 10, 12, 15 inches in diameter. We’re standing there almost in shock thinking is it weapon? Is it some method of communication? Is it a warning? Just as suddenly as it appeared, it disappeared…. The object receded and stayed in the sky.”

Interviews with the stars and filmmakers of Battle: Los Angeles are coming next week. This was the background Columbia offered readers, with the anniversary of the real battle this month.

We’ve also got a boatload more special effects in the ways of helicopters, alien walkers, aliens, and mass destruction. It’s no surprise that these effects are integral to the film, but it’s a relief to see they were done well and not in an absurd fashion a la 2012. If effects aren’t doing it for you, the autotune is back to play up some creepy angst late in the trailer. So apparently, this is going to be one of those battles where some good guys die too.

Oh, and there’s an absolutely colossal mecha-alien at the end that wraps up the trailer nicely. It’s not a overreaching to say audiences will want more after getting a bigger bite of Battle: Los Angeles. (Yahoo! Movies)

Here we see aliens attack major beaches (and cities) across the globe. As the trailer tells us, they conquer Moscow, Paris, Tokyo, Rio, and New York. That is why we cannot afford to lose Los Angeles. Also, because that’s where “Weird” Al Yankovic lives. If we can’t keep our premier song parody artist safe, the aliens have already won.