11:01:39 AM Will Edmondson: Tara, last night was a night of firsts: It was our first (and only, presumably) time seeing "Tooth Fairy," of course, but it was also your first foray into live tweeting. How would you say it went?
11:02:12 AM Tara Ariano: Actually, I also live-tweeted "Twilight" when we watched that on Pay Per View, so...yes, this was a much more pleasant experience.
11:02:40 AM Will Edmondson: Wow, I thought I'd suppressed any memories I had about "Twilight," but here come the post-traumatic stress flashbacks! Thanks a lot, Tara! But I thought "Fairy" was pretty good! Or, let me qualify that: As good as we could possibly have expected "Tooth Fairy" to have been.

11:14:12 AM Will Edmondson: Last night, our beloved readers had us see "Daybreakers," Tara, and you know, I think it's time for me to have a little talk with them.
11:15:35 AM Tara Ariano: I'm sure I don't know what you mean. "Daybreakers" was extremely educational to me. But go ahead.
11:17:13 AM Will Edmondson: Look, I get that some people don't like "Avatar" for a variety of reasons: It's overhyped, maybe not that good (I haven't seen it yet), asinine, etc. But just because you, reader, don't want to see "Avatar" doesn't mean it's okay to inflict pain on a fellow human being.
11:18:05 AM Tara Ariano: It's like the READERS are VAMPIRES preying on us!

1:56:26 PM Tara Ariano: This week we experienced the beauty of democracy in action as the readers voted and we heeded their wishes by seeing "Up in the Air."
1:56:59 PM Will Edmondson: Yes, and thank you, readers, because "Up in the Air" was really great!
1:57:17 PM Tara Ariano: I'm glad you liked it; I didn't expect you to.
1:58:15 PM Will Edmondson: How would I not like it? It combines three of the things I hold dear: 1. Marriage is awful, 2. Being stagnant is next to death, and of course 3. Business travel is the best!

Tara and I have seen a lot of movies this year as part of our weekly Big Movie Recap series, in which we see the biggest movie in America, and post our IM conversation about it. And, because it is the season of giving, we've decided to give...these films some criticism. We've assembled lists of the five best, five worst, and five most enjoyable movies from our series, and talked about them in our second Couchcast -- "Will and Tara's Year in Embarrassing Big Movies." Also covered: The joys of seeing a man extruded through a chain-link fence, a glimpse at Robot Heaven, and Tara "T Tyme" Ariano tries her hands at gangsta rap with her song "Kill U B4 '2012.'" One of those is a lie. Try to pick which one!

Podcast Footnotes:

Here is the "2012" recap, in which I berate Tara for squealing while people die.

Here is "The Proposal" recap, in which I explain why it's a terrible movie.

Here is the "Paranormal Activity" recap, in which Tara complains about the crowd. (I rather liked the crowd.)

2009 was a record year at the box office, but you wouldn't know it from talking to folks who work in Hollywood. By most insider estimates, it was a brutal year. With the studios scaling back on project development slates -- and looking, ever increasingly, to remakes and adaptations of books, comics, and board games -- the ripple effect has resulted in a dwindling job market and an all-but-dead spec screenplay marketplace. 2009 is also watershed as the year that marks -- for the time -- the death of the movie star. Sure, that's been a decade in the making, but this is the first year where not one of the top ten highest-grossing films was driven by star power. Conversely, 2009 was the year that audiences fully embraced 3D. And if James Cameron has his way, the 3D party is just getting started.

We are in a transformative period in movies, as Hollywood grapples with the emergence of online distribution (like this sweet site you're on right here), the new potential of digital filmmaking (bookended by "Paranormal Activity" and "Avatar"), and the challenges of building an audience in the land of endless options. It was a year of great movies -- arguably the strongest of the decade. Here's a look at some of the best (and worst), and what they tell us about the state of the game, after the jump.

When you live in New York, you get used to seeing your surroundings destroyed in inventive apocalyptic ways. But now that someone's compiled a pseudo-greatest hits of the greatest city in the world eating it -- set to "Rhapsody in Blue," no less -- I've got to ask: What's up, Hollywood? Why do you guys have to keep coming up with ways to annihilate the poor Statue of Liberty? Yeah, L.A. ate it particularly badly in "2012," but so did everyone else. I think the studio executives have been drinking a little Haterade. Hit "continue reading" to see the clip.

11:01:29 AM Will Edmondson: So, Tara, you're TOTES ready for this question, LOL!: Are you on "Team Edward," or "Team Jacob"!?!
11:01:59 AM Tara Ariano: To quote Lucille Bluth: I don't understand the question, and I won't respond to it.
11:02:49 AM Will Edmondson: Well, I know what team I'm on, Tara. I'm on "Team 2012," in which a massive, apocalyptic disaster strikes the (fictitious) town of Forks and leaves nothing but a magma-filled fissure down Main Street.
11:04:07 AM Tara Ariano: If that did happen, a lot of (fictitious) people would be better off.
11:06:02 AM Will Edmondson: I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this movie wasn't directed at me and my demographic. But this was still one of the worst moviegoing experiences I've ever had. And yes, this is a blog, and the Internet and hyperbole. But I'm serious: watching "New Moon" was horrible.

It was really only a matter of time before Gov. Jesse Ventura returned to the silver screen for a reality show. The series, "Conspiracy Theory," investigates seven different conspiracies from the last decade and attempts to convince us that we're being lied to. But enough about that: I got to chat with the man himself, Jesse Ventura, about his suspicions of 9/11 and his new career in reality television. You want to hit "continue reading," trust me.

2:11:24 PM Will Edmondson: This week we saw how the world is going to end in "2012," Tara. How do you feel about humanity's fate?
2:11:57 PM Tara Ariano: Here's the best measure of the movie: I'm terrified of the apocalypse, and I laughed my way through the whole two and a half hours of this thing.
2:12:50 PM Will Edmondson: Right. Now, it should be said -- charitably -- that this is a very polarizing movie. The range on Metacritic is 100%-20%. And, it just so happens that both views of "2012" are well represented in this conversation, because I thought it wasn't very good at all.

5:05:40 PM Tara Ariano: Somehow, I managed to become the only English major ever to get a degree without reading a word Charles Dickens ever wrote, but the critics say that Robert Zemeckis's adaptation is extremely faithful to the original text, so I guess I believe them.
5:06:06 PM Will Edmondson: Well, I wasn't an English major, but I've read a bunch of Dickens, because I'm a man of culture. But, I didn't remember much of "A Christmas Carol" until I saw the movie. I remembered a lot of it through the movie, so I'd say that it was pretty faithful. That doesn't change the fact that this movie probably had no business getting made, though.
5:08:01 PM Tara Ariano: I absolutely agree. Whether or not this was the most faithful adaptation ever, did I want to see it creepily animated or with Jim Carrey doing half the voices? In fact, I did not.