Hysteria is to 80s metal as Hybrid Theory is to nu metal. Polished and well crafted variation on disreputable genre.

As much as I hate nu metal, I could never hate on Linkin Park. As an early 90s kid weened on the Seattle bands, any rock music that followed would pale in comparison. But damn if I don't have a few Linkin Park songs in my iTunes. Biggest guilty pleasure: Crawling. Beast of a song.

Very few nu metal bands cover The Smiths and Duran Duran as well as The Deftones did. As far as I'm concerned, they are their own genre.

Linkin Park always seemed like the Def Leppard of Nu Metal. They were content to be lumped in with a genre that was experiencing a moment and moving albums. But in reality, they always ran parallel to those bands by incorporating hip hop and electronics into their sound as well as being pretty decent songwriters.

The weakest of the Bourne films? No thank you. Hot Fuzz? Shoot Em Up? I'd even take a prestige thriller like No Country or American Gangster over another exercise in shakycam.

Agreed. Hot Fuzz is lightning in a bottle. Superb buddy cop action film with creepy English village vibe. Edgar Wright's best film by far ( have not seen Baby Sriver yet).

Did anyone else think that Casino Royals deserved the nod for 2006?

What an atrocious year for action films. 2001-2008 was a real rough patch for action cinema. Looking forward to reading about the rise of the quality action films in the DTV market as mainstream Hollywood gave up on proper action flicks some time ago.

Always happy to have something new with Carpenter's name on it……but his fans won't be truly satisfied until we get one last widescreen feature film from him. Come on Blumhouse, throw some spare change and a decent script the Master's way.

As a child of the 80s, Salenger needs no introduction. Anyone who saw her in the otherwise atrocious Dream a Little Dream with the two Coreys will remember her. Or Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon with River Phoenix. Had a huge crush on her in the late 80s. Also, she was an outstanding young lead in Natty Gann. …

Need to watch it again. It's certainly not Mann's finest hour but his films tend to improve with repeated viewings.

Sorry, but any film that dispatches with the angelic Franke Potente in the first 15 minutes does not deserve the belt for 2004.

Then you will love Thief. It's a stripped down, proto-Heat featuring James Caan's best performance and an Oscar worthy bad guy performance from Robert Profsky. Oh, and Tangerine Dream.

Agree with this 100%. Pains me to see Mann lose his fastball in recent years. Collateral is his last great film and a perfect addition to the canon of great LA crime films. Also, it is the last time Cruise played an actual character and not just "dude that runs fast".

We can all agree that Troy has Brad Pitt's worst performance ever, right? Worse than Meet Joe Black, correct?

Track down the amazing How Did This Get Made episode for War Zine with its director and Patton Oswald. Very insightful stuff on being a female director, let alone an up and coming director, in Hollywood.

Negotiator would have been my pick for the 1998 entry of this series. Well crafted thriller with great work from the entire cast. F Gary Gray actually has quite a few gems in his resume.

Collateral is my pick for 2004: peak Michael Mann, last great Tom Cruise performance, a top 10 LA crime film.

He was super burnt out after Ghosts of Mars. Cranking out a film a year for 20 years will do that to you.
Besides he can sleep easy knowing his run from 1976-1988 is one of the greatest of all time.

Come on John! Just one more film, preferably with Kurt, before you truly pack it in.
Hopefully Jason Blum will come to his senses and toss Carpenter some spare change to make one last micro budget masterpiece.