“Terminator Salvation,” directed by McG and starring Christian Bale, is being released May 21, 2009 by Warner Bros.

The practical challenge for the filmmakers of “Terminator Salvation” was to bring to life an America circa 2018 with its sun-blasted expanses, skeletal cities and both human and Terminator occupants.  From finding the ideal locations and shooting facilities, to the fabrication of every physical element, to the type of film stock used to capture the otherworldly vistas he sought, McG worked in close collaboration with his team to create a unified and totally new vision for the post-apocalyptic reality of the story.

Taking Woodstock, Ang Lee’s new feature film about the seminal event, receives its world premiere at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival (in competition), exactly 40 years after the actual phenom took place.

Would the movie, based on a personal memoir, leave imprint on the current cultural milieu?  You will be amused to realize that back in 1969, the following words held meanings beyond their dictionary ones:

Axe: Any musical instrument, or any tool you use to do your art.

Ball:  (as a noun) A good time; (as a verb) Sexual intercourse.

“Taking Woodstock,” the new film from Oscar Award-winning director Ang Lee (“BRokeback Mountain”), receives its world premiere at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival in competition.  It will be released by Focus Features in the summer.

Dear Readers,

I have always believed that the whole point of film criticism is not to serve as consumers guide, namely, to recommend to readers which specific movies to see or not to see.  No. The goal of criticism is to shed light, or illuminate, a particular work by placing it against the contexts in which it was made.  Thus, the more reviews one reads, the better informed  a viewers is.

Carlos Cuaron is the writer-director of Rudo y Cursi (Tough and Corny), which is being released by Sony Pictures Classics on May 8, 2009. 

For Carlos, Rudo y Cursi (Tough and Corny) was like a family project, literally, as one of the producers (Alfonso Cuarón) is my brother, the other two (Alejandro González Iñárritu and Guillermo del Toro) are very dear friends, Diego and Gael are my buddies and the rest of the crew became my creative kin. We were able to create a big family in which we were all united by the same cause. Alejandro, Guillermo and Alfonso explained everything that could happen and everything I could feel while directing my first feature. Diego and Gael explained and had opinions about everything they wanted in regards to acting issues. So I was very sheltered.