The King's Speech was the first movie in a long time that I've gone into without seeing a trailer for in advance. I figured, "The buzz is great, the actors are great, the director is great, so why bother?" So, despite having actually attended speech therapy sessions with a family member, I wasn't sure how the thrilling story of a king learning to cure his stutter was going to play out. It turns out it plays out very much like Rocky, or Days of Thunder, or any other sports movie where an underdog, through commitment and dedication, becomes a champion, only in this case they're a champion at reading good.

Only 353 days until Breaking Dawn! Squeeeee!

Irvin Kershner, the director of The Empire Strikes Back, passed away over the weekend, and everyone is filled with kind words about the man who gave us the greatest Star Wars film. But Kershner directed other movies, as well, in a broad assortment of genres, from romances to thrillers to comedies, and he was apparently the go-to guy for sequels, having directed three besides Empire -- none of which featured his hand on the original. I haven't seen The Return of a Man Called Horse, but the other two are personal favorites, so I thought I'd shine a spotlight on them, since Empire has its own arsenal of spotlights.

The world lost a great comedic actor in Leslie Nielsen this past weekend, and, if you're a fan of the classics, a great dramatic one, too. His chiseled, leading-man looks and professional demeanor suited his transition from sci-fi and dramas to deadpan comedy perfectly, and he continued to deliver for years, even if his efforts occasionally devolved into slapstick buffoonery. Overlooking the odd disastrous Mel Brooks collaboration, here's a guide to five of my favorite Nielsen performances.

How did Quasimodo get a Disney movie before Rapunzel? Okay, they were probably trying to go after the hunchbacked boys' market with that one, but everyone knows that the four most iconic princesses in fairy tales are Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White and Rapunzel (as seen in Shrek the Third), and yet it took 50 animated feature films for Disney to get around to her. Perhaps they were waiting for computer animation technology to reach a point where they wouldn't have to hand-draw every single strand of hair on her head? Whatever the reason, it was worth the wait, because the end result is a flawless animated spectacle, with great vocal performances and one of the funniest and most entertaining princesses in Disney's cotillion.

Finally, the guilty pleasure event of the year has arrived in Burlesque. Glitter and Showgirls are shaking in their butterfly tattoos. Highly dangerous drinking games will soon be spawned. Theme parties will eventually be thrown for the DVD release. Aspiring sluts you know will dress up as these characters for Halloweens to come. It is, to put it mildly, a major pop cultural deal. Or maybe not! Who knows if anybody will even see it? It could be the Snakes on a Plane of whore movies -- bloggers obsess over it, but nobody else in their right mind gives a hell about it. All I know is that I saw it, and it melted my face off with an atomic blast of Tucci-scented Lucite. So let's discuss all the ways in which this movie does not disappoint.

Dwayne Johnson's return to action films is long overdue. Aside from his awesome (but tiny) role in The Other Guys, he's been mainly stuck in Disney territory, babysitting kids and flying around on fairy wings. Faster takes him back to his strike zone -- movies like The Rundown, where he can get in knife fights while surrounded by explosions. Except the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction. Faster is ridiculous, but no fun. It's violent, but in the least creative way possible. People run and drive fast, but it's usually just because they need to get somewhere. And when they drive backwards, it's not clear why. Basically, the story is as monochromatic as the film's palette, which seems to use only two colors, tan and brown.

Depending on which commercials you've seen for this movie, you may not realize that Anne Hathaway's character has early-onset Parkinson's disease. It's not a secret, except in the sense that the studio apparently didn't want to scare away audiences -- she mentions it the first time we meet her, and it's a constant talking point throughout the film. But that's only one of three different movies going on here. The second movie is an insider's look at the drug industry, specifically the tactics used by drug reps to get their drugs into doctors' hands, or at least their eyeline. And the third movie is a raunchy Judd Apatow comedy. Any two of those movies would have been plenty, but three causes way too many tonal shifts, and it gets a little hard to figure out how you're supposed to be feeling at any given time.

And one... and two... and three... and four... Explosion... explosion... explosion... You're doing good...

Harry Potter is going to need another vault at Gringotts, because the opening weekend of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part One made more money than any HP installment so far, and landed the number-six spot on the list of biggest opening weekends of all time. It's almost as if a lot of people really want to see how the seven-part story is going to end, even though it won't actually be concluded until Part 2 comes out next summer! Who would have thought it?! In bigger news, the HP franchise is only $80 million behind Star Wars, which means it will be the highest-grossing franchise within the month. Somewhere, George Lucas is realizing that a successful cartoon series doesn't mean squat in the annals of motion-picture history.