Is there a better director of opening sequences working right now than Danny Boyle? From the invigorating "Lust for Life"-scored chase scene that opens Trainspotting (a sequence that introduced a whole new generation to the pleasures of Iggy Pop and the dangers of heroin addiction) to Cillian Murphy's trek through a desolate, deserted London at the top of 28 Days Later to James Franco's preparations for his wilderness adventure in 127 Hours, Boyle seeks to command your attention from the very first frame. And even if the rest of the film fails to sustain the momentum and excitement of those initial minutes (a list that, for me at least, includes A Life Less Ordinary, Sunshine and -- Oscar be damned -- Slumdog Millionaire), the opening sequence often functions as an almost note-perfect mini-movie in and of itself. Boyle's latest picture, Trance, boasts yet another killer beginning, one that starts with a daring daylight auction house heist and ends with our ostensible hero, auctioneer Simon (James McAvoy), getting knocked upside the head by the ostensible villain, robbery ringleader Franck (Vincent Cassel). In its expert use of music, razor-sharp editing and overall propulsive energy, this sequence highlights in microcosm why Boyle is such a consistently exciting filmmaker... if only sometimes for ten to 15 minutes at a stretch.

Like almost everyone else who saw Jurassic Park during its initial theatrical run 20 years ago, I have a lot of nostalgic fondness for Steven Spielberg's feature-length montage of dino rampage, which was based on Michael Crichton's best-selling book. It's an old-fashioned summer blockbuster executed with then new (and now old-fashioned) digital wizardry that plays like gangbusters when seen on the big screen with a packed crowd. And I have no doubt that the third-dimension enhanced Jurassic Park 3D, which opens theatrically on Friday, will be one of the better post-3D conversions of library titles, if only because Spielberg is a James Cameron-level stickler when it comes to the presentation of his past work. But as impressive as the T-Rex, those velociraptors and the rest of the film's computer-generated cast of giant lizards might look in 3D, there are some deep-seated flaws with Jurassic Park that even the format change won't be able to compensate for or distract from. Flaws like...

Why bother with other new release when you can just revisit the Marvel Cinematic Universe one more time?

In 2004, Shane Carruth took adventurous moviegoers on a mindbending trip through time and space with Primer, his absurdly low-budget debut feature about a group of engineers who create a time travel device that, inevitably, causes all manner of trouble. Frequently included on lists of the all-time great time travel movies (as well as lists of cult movies you have to see), Primer made its fans eager to see what Carruth was going to do next. Almost a decade later, the writer/director has returned with his follow-up, Upstream Color, another intricately made sci-fi tinged feature that's had people buzzing since it premiered at Sundance in January. Instead of waiting around for a distributor, Carruth is releasing the movie himself. On Friday, April 5, Upstream Color will open in limited release followed quickly by a VOD and DVD release. Carruth spoke with us about returning from his long absence and why he wants his films to be more than just "a book that you can watch."

Based on his two narrative features to date, Blue Valentine and now The Place Beyond the Pines, writer/director Derek Cianfrance is fascinated by consequences and the various ways in which a person's past actions inalterably shape the present and future for themselves and the people around them. In Valentine, this theme was explored through a narrative structure that bounced back and forth in time, contrasting the exciting rush of first love for its central couple (played by Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling) with the pain and heartache generated by their failing marriage years later. Pines's timeline only moves in one direction -- forwards -- but it covers far more ground than Valentine, spanning almost 20 years in the lives of two upstate New York-based families whose fates become intertwined by an almost random moment of chance.

Stephanie Meyer's post-Twilight movie career begins today with the release of The Host, the Meyer-produced, Andrew Niccol-directed adaptation of the 2008 sci-fi novel she penned in between Twilight installments. We're sure you've got a... well, host of burning questions about the film and we're here with the answers.

If last year's effects-laden blockbuster Snow White and the Huntsman (or, for that matter, ABC's ongoing Once Upon a Time) isn't your ideal re-telling of the classic fairy tale about a beautiful princess, an evil queen and a poisoned apple, you might fall under the spell of Blancanieves, a black-and-white silent version of the oft-told legend, written and directed by Spanish filmmaker Pablo Berger. Transported from medieval times to Seville circa 1920, the film also recasts Snow White's royal characters as bullfighting royalty, an alteration that, in execution, isn't as strange as it might initially sound.

When Paramount initially announced last year that they would be moving G.I. Joe: Retaliation -- the sequel to 2009's sort-of hit The Rise of Cobra (which earned $150 million domestically, but cost close to $200 million to make and market) -- from its mid-summer berth to the following March, the common assumption was that the studio was running from an impending flop. In hindsight though, the move qualifies as a stroke of genius. Facing a packed line-up of back-to-back blockbusters that included The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises, Retaliation was in danger of getting lost in the summer shuffle. But now at the end of March -- with A Good Day to Die Hard in the rearview and Iron Man 3 over a month away -- it has the big-budget action movie sequel playing field to itself. So the movie's financial success is seemingly assured. It's creative success? Well... that's a different story. Before you too join the ranks of the millions of moviegoers screaming "Yo, Joe!" this weekend, here are five things to know about Retaliation.

Forescore and one month ago, Lincoln lost the Best Picture Oscar to Argo.

If it weren't already being remade as a Vince Vaughn star vehicle (look for it this fall under the new, more generic title, The Delivery Man), the French-Canadian comedy Starbuck could have easily been retrofitted into a TV sitcom. Just take a gander at the premise: in his youth, fortysomething slacker-with-a-heart-of-gold David Wozniak (Patrick Huard, one of French-speaking Canada's biggest comedy stars, which is akin to being the biggest stand-up act in Des Moines) made frequent and copious donations to his local sperm bank under the alias "Starbuck." Just as he's weighing whether or not to settle down his girlfriend, who is carrying their child, he's informed that his vintage seed was exceptionally popular amongst the bank's clientele and he's now the father of over 500 grown children, a significant chunk of whom now want to meet him. Not wanting to openly admit his parentage (both due to the humiliation factor and the fact that he owes money to some thugs), he pays one-on-one visits to some of his offspring and -- without revealing his true identity -- helps them out of various jams. It's like My Name is Earl crossed with Guys With Kids! Coming this fall to NBC.