It's a big day for movies coming to DVD today. A trio of pretty major films hit the stores. Here's a brief rundown of them:

There Will Be Blood
Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano
Why you should rent it: Daniel Day-Lewis won Best Actor for the role.

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Stars: John C. Reilly, Jenna Fischer
Why you should rent it: It's funny. At times. During certain parts.

Lions for Lambs
Stars: Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, Tom Cruise
Why you should rent it: One of the only times these days you can watch Cruise without being bombarded with Scientology talk.

Smart People delivers a great cast. The romantic comedy stars Dennis Quaid, Ellen Page, Thomas Hayden Church and Sarah Jessica Parker.

Do these stars combine to produce an entertaining, heart warming film? Let's see what a number of movie critics from around the country think about that...

- Smart People is a borderline-excruciating exercise in trying to replicate the eccentric charm of Little Miss Sunshine. -- Slant Magazine

- It could've been much better. The characters don't really progress too far (any developments are too minute to be appreciated), leaving this movie as really just a bunch of A-List names with nothing much else to offer. -- Film Threat

- [Screenwriter] Poirier is a master at dialogue. His script crackles with sharp lines and he gives all his scenes a splendid comic undertow. -- The Hollywood Reporter

- Has enough funny moments and original ideas that it's genuinely enjoyable based on the strength of its script and cast alone. -- ComingSoon.net

Orlando Bloom knows all about major film franchises. Can you say Pirates of the Caribbean?

Now, the actor has landed the lead role in the next big budget franchise, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

Bloom will reportedly rake in $40 million for all three pictures. The first will be directed by Mike Newell and is set for a June 2009 release. Filming will start in Morocco.

Kristen Bell recently talked to Movies Online about her upcoming comedy, Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Here are excerpts from the interview:

MoviesOnline: Did you have to learn to surf for this movie and did you save any of that cool beach wardrobe for yourself?
Kristen Bell: I didn't have surfing lessons. Mila had Japanese lessons. I had horseback riding lessons and Russell and Jason had surfing lessons. But during my horseback riding lessons, and I rode as a kid, I had 8 sessions or whatever it was to get me comfortable on the horses so we could do it, and that scene has actually been cut from the movie but it'll be on the DVD.

In two sessions I was remembering all the stuff that I grew up with so she was like "Well we can just mess around" and there were beautiful trails and we were right on the beach and she let me go swimming with my horse, Baba, into the ocean.

MoviesOnline: Baba?
Kristen Bell: Baba. I'm sure you've heard about him. He's the greatest horse in Hawaii. We went into the water because Baba loves to swim and so we'd go up to my waist and he's completely submerged with just his head sticking up and he'll start to paddle around. It is a divine experience.

Read the full interview now.

Warner Bros, has released an official plot synopsis for The Dark Knight. Check it out now:

The Dark Knight reunites director Christopher Nolan with star Christian Bale, who returns to continue Batman's war on crime. With the help of Lieutenant Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) and District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), Batman sets out to destroy organized crime in Gotham for good.

The triumvirate proves to be effective, but they soon find themselves prey to a rising criminal mastermind known as The Joker (Heath Ledger), who thrusts Gotham into anarchy and forces the Dark Knight ever closer to crossing the fine line between hero and vigilante.

While movie goers can hardly wait for Emile Hirsch's next film, a rebooting of the Speed Racer cartoon, the young actor is equally excited for a flick that possess a few less special effects.

"I just did this film called Milk with Sean Penn and Gus Van Sant about Harvey Milk," Hirsch recently told MTV, providing early details on what many are already calling this year's Oscar movie to beat. "I think it's going to be a really good film."

In the the current, politically charged climate, Milk may receive extra attention when it comes out in November.

"Not many people know the story yet," said Hirsch, who plays real-life gay activist Cleve Jones, of of California's first openly gay elected official.

"Milk represented change for a lot of people, and was a catalyst to that," Hirsch concluded "And his eventual assassination similarly mirrored Martin Luther King."

Shia LaBeouf injured himself during the filming of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

"I pulled a rotator cuff in my hip," LaBeouf told MTV. "It's the only time in my career I've ever been injured. What happened was, because the injury got worse and worse as the movie went on, I pulled my groin also. [The groin] is not a good thing to have anything happen to."

Don't worry, though, fans: the young star will be fine in time for the summer, when filming on a certain, much-anticipated sequel begins.

"We're gearing up for [Transformers 2] in June," he said.

As for what he'd like to see out of his robot friends, Shia has just one request: "It's got to be more badass. It has to be."

With Lions for Lambs coming out on DVD tomorrow, we've updated its movie page on our site.

For instance, browse through a few quotes from the film now. You can also check out the film's trailer and soundtrack, while clicking through the following photos from the Tom Cruise/Meryl Streep/Robert Redford project...

Smart People opens this week. The romantic comedy stars Thomas Hayden Church, Dennis Quaid and Sarah Jessica Parker.

All three stars sat down with ComingSoon.net last week to discuss the movie. Here are highlights from the interview:

CS: Can you talk about the other physical aspects from the beard to the walk, it seems like a lot is going on even before you speak? Can you talk about building the character physically?
Quaid: Yeah, I wanted him to have a look to him, very sedentary, someone who is sort of like a sleepwalker or somebody who is emotionally dead in a way and had been for quite some time. Unkempt. I didn't have time to gain the weight so I just put on a fat suit every day, and actually, putting it on is like having the weight on.

It's hard on your back and it changes the way you walk, and the beard is really kind of a protective defense with him in a sense, to hide from the world, or to appear to be very smart.

CS: Sarah, what's the difference between working on a small independent film like this over a major production like the Sex and the City movie where you're not only acting but producing as well?
Parker: Well, sometimes the difference is what might seem like a disadvantage actually. I personally like we had a less than luxurious schedule on this movie. I think they said it was 29 days, and I actually do like that kind of speed.

Big movies tend to have very generous schedules and generous budgets, and you end up doing things over three and four days that you know can be done in an afternoon or a day and a half, and you just think of all the money flying out the window and all the energy that dissipates over the day while you wait and then just producing responsibilities, 'cause both these gentleman know them well, they just change your responsibilities.

Continue Reading...

National CineMedia has released its latest in-theater FirstLook presentation. This one focuses on Universal Pictures and Marvel Studios' The Incredible Hulk, opening in theaters on June 13.