quarantine

Yappy ‘Chihuahua’ Insurgency Holds Its Ground

3:23AM STV | It might be a holiday for some of you, but even on Columbus Day, the whip cracks for the number-crunchers and trend-spotters at Defamer HQ. Their work today yields the surprising latest installment of Monday Morning Box Office, in which a low-budget thriller surprised even its own studio and Leonardo DiCaprio is furious after stomping out a flaming bag of chihuahua crap. Read on for the details.

‘Express,’ ‘Quarantine’ Climb Into Multiplex Over Leo’s Dead ‘Body’

2:00AM STV | Welcome back to Defamer Attractions, your regular guide to everything new, noteworthy and potentially hideous this week at the movies. Today we see another fistful of titles tossed on the fall-release glut, none of which may have the stamina to outlast Disney’s purse dog in a three-day race at the box office. We also have our refined eye on the weekend’s most disappointing opening as well as our official art-house underdog, plus a few cherry-picked new DVD titles for the shut-ins among you. You know how this works by now: Our opinions are our own, but with free, near-gemological precision like this, why go anywhere else?

Sensational Viral Mystery Eating L.A. Not Such a Mystery After All

2:51AM Defamer Hollywood | Not to be outdone by the swift, shaky-cam destruction of its transcontinental nemeses in Cloverfield, Los Angeles is getting its own taste of catastrophe in the latest viral sensation to hit YouTube. At least we think it’s L.A.; some have suggested that Case 1017 — the grainy home video of HazMat-suited CDC officials and semi-automatic weapons fire that has attracted 1.1 million views since Saturday — is a tease for Cloverfield 2 or M. Night Shyamalan’s forthcoming Philly disaster epic The Happening. Follow the jump, however, for what turns out to be a much simpler explanation. More »