Sick and tired of the lame, creatively challenged cinematic offerings currently crowding the multiplex? Head over to Cincinnati World Cinema's most popular event, the annual Oscar Shorts & More, which takes over The Madison Theater in Covington tonight, Wednesday and Sunday.

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Writer/director Kevin Smith's self-financed Red State 13-town, movie tour hits Ohio on Monday with a stop a Clark State Performing Arts Center, which is about a 90-minute drive north of Cincinnati in Springfield. Described as “a horror/comedy/satire about a Westboro Baptist Church-esque fundamentalist community that murders those it finds abominations in God's eyes (aka gay people),” the film premiered to mixed reviews and a small group of protesters at the Sundance Film Festival Jan. 22.

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It's been a pretty shitty year to date at the movie house. Check this list of critical bombs that have graced the multiplex in 2011, all of which generated a D or worse from CityBeat's review team: Season of the Witch, The Rite, Drive Angry, Big Momma's: Like Father, Like Son, Sanctum, From Prada to Nada, Country Strong, The Roommate, Hall Pass, Just Go With It and No Strings Attached. (Curiously, that group features films starring Oscar winners Nicolas Cage, Anthony Hopkins, Gwyneth Paltrow and Natalie Portman.)

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In an obvious stroke of marketing synchronicity, it’s no coincidence that James Franco’s and Anne Hathaway’s recent films are being released on DVD/Blu-ray this week, just a few days after the duo hosted Hollywood’s biggest yearly extravaganza of pomp and self-congratulation.

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The Academy has been trying in recent years to move its awards show into the 21st century without dissing its tradition-rich past. The results have been mixed.

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The Academy Awards, Hollywood's annual self-congratulatory wankfest, take place Sunday night. Yet, in the Academy's defense, this year's batch of nominees is actually pretty discerning. Here are my predictions in the major categories...

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We've a very odd collection of movies this week. Liam Neeson is back in yet another dark-hued action thriller, while Paul Giamatti headlines a period drama in which he gets to woo and/or interact with a trio of attractive ladies (Rachelle Lefevre, Minnie Driver and Rosamund Pike).

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It's interesting that Cole Smithey would evoke the name of Nicolas Cage when commenting on Liam Neeson's recent fondness for genre pictures that would seem beneath his talents. In his review of Unknown, which opens here at 12:01 a.m. tonight, Smithey says, “How Liam Neeson went from being that rare thespian animal of a leading-man character actor to a full-on action star while still keeping his artistic integrity is a mystery. It's certainly more than Nicolas Cage could do.”

While the latter is hard to argue against — though I'm not giving up hope on Cage just yet (see 2009's Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans) — I'm not so sure the former is still accurate.

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Listen up, Christian movie fans — The Genesis Code is coming!

In an effort to be as informative as possible to Tristate cinema geeks of every genre, political persuasion and religious affiliation, I thought I'd alert you to the coming presence of a movie that some have called “excellent,” “very worthwhile” and “absolutely dynamic.”

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Alejandro González Iñárritu's Biutiful, the only film featuring a 2011 acting Oscar nominee (Javier Bardem for Actor in a Leading Role) that has yet to open in Cincinnati, drops at the Esquire today. If tt stern-enzi's review is any indication, expect Bardem's latest performance — as a deeply troubled guy named Uxtal traversing the underworld of modern Barcelona — to be among his best, which is saying something.

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