With One For the Money, in theaters today, Katherine Heigl returns in a starring vehicle for the first time in nearly a year-and-a-half. What’s One For the Money about, you ask? I have barely any idea! As always with Katherine, when it comes to entertainment value, the off-screen chatter far trumps the on-screen action. The thing is, Heigl actually hasn’t done anything to piss anyone off for a while. It’s been years now since she pulled any awesome stunts like bashing Knocked Up, the flick that made her a movie star, or passive-aggressively withdrawing her name from Emmy eligibility for Grey’s Anatomy because she “did not feel that I was given the material this season to warrant a … nomination.” Considering the lack of drama, I wondered: how are people feeling about Katherine Heigl these days? To find out, I conducted a highly scientific survey I emailed a bunch of people I know at random and asked them to share their feelings. I’ll just say this one thing: in my days in the pop culture blog trenches, I’ve sent a lot of mass emails asking for people’s opinion on stuff. And never have I seen a response as immediate, as impassioned, and as inspired as I did when I asked about Ms. Heigl. Producers of One For the Money: Feel free to use that on the poster.

Contraband (January 13, 2012)

A film should be applauded for knowing what it is and not trying to over-extend itself — sometimes just being 90 minutes of fun is worth the price of admission (see every Fast and Furious movie). With a trailer packed with snappy visuals, booming music, and bad-ass dialogue, this Mark Wahlberg thriller — in which he plays a now-legit ex-con dragged back into crime to help his family — looks to be one of those movies.