It may not be the overwhelming win that its pricey PR push promised, but America’s new number one movie Real Steel did score the highest debut of any truly ‘new’ release since Rise of the Planet of the Apes two months ago.  With $27.3 million from its 3,440 locations, the family-friendly robot boxing movie also earned almost three times what its nearest competitor, George Clooney’s The Ides of March, saw on its first weekend.

Coming to theaters today is Ruben Fleisher’s 30 Minutes or Less. The film, which reunites Fleisher with his Zombieland star Jesse Eisenberg, tells the story of a pizza delivery boy (Eisenberg) who is strapped to a bomb and forced to rob a bank as part of a harebrained scheme hatched by two hapless criminals (Danny McBride and Nick Swardson) looking to inherent a fortune. Along the way, Eisenberg enlists his best friend, (Aziz Ansari) to help with the heist.

Recently, I got on the phone with Eisenberg to discuss the film. Unlike most actors, who seem to have been coached to death on what to say to every question, Eisenberg comes off as a genuine and intelligent person who actually considers the topic, rather than just reverting to scripted anecdotes. He even sources his jokes back to their originators. He’s an interesting guy who seems to be interested in acting far more than he is in being a “star”. During our interview, we discussed the pitfalls of action filmmaking, his approach to characters, how he would handle a bank robbery, why he doesn’t think Zombieland 2 will happen, Fred Durst as a director, Woody Allen, the pitfalls of being famous in the age of camera phones and much more.  Hit the jump for the full interview.

The film world was rocked to it’s very core today with the announcement of the nominees for the 2011 MTV Movie Awards, the only movie awards show with the courage to hand out trophies for categories like “Best Kiss,” “Biggest Badass Star,” and “Best Scared-As-S**t Performance” (MTV still thinks it would be too much to include the letters “h” and “i”). Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was The Twilight Saga: Eclipse that lead the pack with 8 nominations, followed closely by Inception with 7, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 with 6, and The Social Network with 5 nods.  Obviously Twilight will win everything because fandom doesn’t care about critically comparing their favored property against other material.

As previously announced, Jason Sudeikis will be hosting the awards live on Sunday June 5^th. If you’re desperate to make sure that Steve-O gets that coveted “Best Jaw-Dropping Moment” statue for the Poo Cocktail Supreme in Jackass 3D (7) (about which he told MTV, “Being nominated in this category for my work with poo really means something.  I’m not sure what, but I’m very grateful.”), voting will take place at MovieAwards.MTV.com from today until June 4. That is except for the “Best Movie” category, which fans can continue to vote for while the awards ceremony is taking place. Hit the jump for the full list of awards and nominations.

In what easily had to be one of the most painful, unfunny Oscar ceremonies in recent memory, The King’s Speech finally reached the end of its inevitable march to Best Picture.  It was the first Best Picture winner to win less than five Oscars (it won four, including Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay). [Correction: Crash, which won Best Picture in 2006, only won 3 Oscars]  Does that make it more or less unworthy of the Best Picture crown?  I don’t know.  I don’t care.  I’m drained after live-blogging the awful show and 50 minutes of terrible pre-show.

Hit the jump for the full list of winners.

Like any good Oscar ceremony, the 83rd Academy Awards will most likely drag on unto infinity.  Categories will blend together and you’ll find yourself waiting to see who wins “Best Costume Design for a Live-Action Short Starring Winter’s Bone“.  I’m trying to stop myself from being on auto-snark and hoping that the show is genuinely entertaining.  I find hosts Anne Hathaway and James Franco to be charming so hopefully they’ll have some good material.  Last year, I didn’t expect much from Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin and I thought they did a terrific job.  While the Oscars are a show for rich people to congratulate themselves on a job well done, the host doesn’t have to tear the room down to make us poor slobs at home feel better.  There’s a balancing act and hopefully Hathaway and Franco can pull it off.

So get your Oscar ballots ready and hit the jump as I live-blog the 83rd Academy Awards.  Also, you can click here for my predictions.

I will be so happy once Oscar season is over.  I won’t have to hear about who’s up, who’s down, who deserves to win, and how Best Picture nominee A is more historically accurate than Best Picture nominee B.  For all the needless pomp and circumstance, the awards do serve a purpose.  Sure, studios like the kudos, but they really like the big business an awards film can generate.  Audiences like the awards because it’s a way of telling them “There were so many great movies last year, but here’s the one you must see because Hollywood agreed it was the ‘best’.”

But since the awards show appeals to our competitive spirit, I’ve decided to give my predictions for this year’s winners along with who I think deserves to win among the nominated films.  As a reminder, I will be live-blogging the Oscars, which air Sunday, February 27th, at 8pm on ABC.  Hit the jump for my semi-educated guesses.

Two subsets of Hollywood’s production crews chimed in last night on the best film and television of 2010.  The American Cinema Editors handed out their adorably named Eddie Awards with a respectable degree of specialization.  The Social Network was named the best edited feature-length drama — Alice in Wonderland, Toy Story 3, and Exit Through the Gift Shop won in the comedy/musical, animated, and documentary categories respectively.  Modern Family, The Walking Dead, Treme, and Temple Grandin were deemed the best edited programs on television last year.

The Cinema Audio Society gave their top film award to True Grit, and became the first voting body to recognize the straight-to-DVD greatness of 30 Days of Night: Dark Days.  TV nods went to Boardwalk Empire, Temple Grandin, and Deadliest Catch.  Hit the jump for the full list of winners.

The Oscars are mere weeks away, and as such, award season is just about over. However, that doesn’t mean we’re bereft of award-inspired artwork just yet. The BAFTAs (British Academy Film Awards) were held last week, where The King’s Speech all but swept most of the categories. Included in the brochure for the ceremony was some outstanding original artwork by Adam Simpson depicting each of the five nominees for Best Picture: Black Swan, Inception, The King’s Speech, The Social Network and True Grit. Hit the jump to check out the individual illustrations for yourself.

The BAFTAs (British Academy Film Awards) were held today and The King’s Speech nearly pulled off a clean sweep with seven wins, including Best Film and Oustanding British Film. Generally considered the British version of the Oscars, the BAFTAs are usually a fairly accurate gauge of how things will turn out at the Academy Awards (on February 27th). Natalie Portman won Best Actress for Black Swan and the unbeatable Colin Firth took home the Best Actor prize. Providing a glimmer of hope for The Social Network fans, David Fincher took home the Best Director trophy. The Social Network also won Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Editing. Inception took home three trophies including Best Visual Effects. Hit the jump to see the complete list of the winners.

It’s no surprise that Aaron Sorkin’s script for The Social Network won Best Adapted Screenplay at the Writers Guild Awards last night — that script is the favorite for pretty much any award it’s up for.  The same is roughly true for David Seidler’s script for The King’s Speech in the original category.  But the very British The King’s Speech does not meet WGA eligibility, leaving a vacuum at the top.  Christopher Nolan stepped up and won Best Original Screenplay for Inception, news that ought to please the masses.

In television, Mad Men was named the Best Drama Series for the third year in a row, while Modern Family managed to end 30 Rock‘s three-year reign as Best Comedy Series.  Hit the jump to see the full list of winners.

The Screen Actors Guild handed out awards for the 17th time tonight with The King’s Speech and The Fighter each taking home two wins.  Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech won awards in the “Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture” (more or less, SAG’s equivalent to the Academy’s “Best Picture” category ) and “Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role” for Colin Firth.  Meanwhile, David O. Russell’s The Fighter dominated the supporting categories by landing “Outstanding Performance in a Supporting Role” awards for both Christian Bale and Melissa Leo.  In what should be (in my opinion, at least) an open-shut case for the Academy, Natalie Portman was awarded “Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role” for her stellar work in Black Swan.

For those wondering what, if any, effect the SAG Awards may have on the eventual Academy Awards, it’s important to note that the event is believed to be a better gauge of Oscar winners than its most recent predecessor (the Golden Globes).  This is because the Screen Actors Guild is comprised mostly of American actors (the largest branch of the Academy) as opposed to the Globes which is made-up of a smaller group of foreign journalists known as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.  Long story short (though certainly not etched in stone), look for The King’s Speech to take home Best Picture next month.

Hit the jump to check out the complete list of winners (television included) from the 17th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards.

The nominees for the 83^rd Annual Academy Awards have been announced.  The King’s Speech led the pack with 12 nominations.  True Grit followed with 10 nominations while early favorite The Social Network racked up eight.  Most of the nominees were easy to predict.  While I’m not surprised that John Hawkes (Winter’s Bone), Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone), and Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) nabbed acting nominations, I’m happy they were recognized for their work.  I’m also ridiculously happy that Exit Through the Gift Shop picked up a nod for Best Documentary.

As far as snubs go, the biggest one has to be Christopher Nolan for Inception.  While he picked up the DGA nomination, the Academy chose to go with Joel and Ethan Coen for True Grit.  As someone who loved the hell out of True Grit, it’s hard for me to complain.

Hit the jump to check out the full list of nominees along with my commentary.  Winners will be announced on February 27^th.  James Franco and Anne Hathaway are set to host the awards ceremony.

It’s going to be an American night at this year’s César Awards (France’s Oscar equivalent). For starters, Quentin Tarantino is the recipient of the ceremony’s honorary award, Alain Terzian, the president of the Académie des arts et techniques du cinéma announced at a press conference this morning in Paris. It was also confirmed that the Inglorious Basterds director will pick up his trophy in person.

Additionally, three American movies are among the seven nominees for Best Foreign Film: Christopher Nolan’s Inception, David Fincher’s The Social Network and Clint Eastwood’s Invictus.  Presided by Jodie Foster and hosted for the second year running by French actor Antoine de Caunes — a witty guy but meek compared to Ricky Gervais — the 36th edition of the Césars will take place on February 25 in Paris.  See the full list of César nominees after the jump.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) have announced their nominations for the 2011 BAFTA Awards (the British equivalent of the Oscars).  While The Social Network is busy dominating awards circles on this side of the Atlantic, it looks like (unsurprisingly) The King’s Speech is going to clean up at the BAFTAs.  The film received 14 nominations including Best Picture and Outstanding British Film.  The Social Network still managed to pick up 6 nominations including Best Picture.   Also in the Best Picture race: Black Swan (12 nominations), True Grit (8 nominations), and Inception (9 nominations).  Other great films getting some love from the BAFTAs included Banksy’s Exit Through the Gift Shop (1 nomination) and Chris Morris’ Four Lions (2 nominations).

Hit the jump for a full list of the nominations.  Winners will be announced on February 13th.

I have just endured three painful hours of the Golden Globes.  Thankfully, folks who deserved awards got them (except for Community, which wasn’t even nominated, so way to screw that up, Hollywood Foreign Press Association).  You can click here to check out my live blog of the entire ceremony, but if you just want a listing of who won what, then hit the jump.  The Social Network took home four Golden Globes including Best Score (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross), Best Screenplay (Aaron Sorkin), Best Director (David Fincher), and Best Motion Picture (Drama).