The Headliner

Hugo

Last chance for On Demand: It's the Paris-set Best Picture Oscar nominee that will transport you back to a magical moment in cinema history! No, not The Artist. Hugo is Martin Scorsese's attempt at making a movie his tween daughter could actually watch (in 3-D, no less — though obviously it ... will not be presented in that format if you rent it at home).

Though it was marketed as a family film, my own friends with kids report that Hugo is too boring for younger children, and too twee for older ones, encompassing as it does old-timey movies, analog clocks (which Hugo spends his time covertly winding, in the Paris train station, after the death of his father), and steampunk (an automaton plays a pivotal role). Maybe The Artist — still available On Demand — is a better choice for a family movie night. At least that one has a cute dog.

Django Unchained (December 25)

[Note: If you can't see the videos, please try another browser. We put the trailers in this post, we promise.]

Silver: Here’s how you know you’re watching a trailer for a new Quentin Tarantino movie.

• Stylized banter (“Last chance, fancypants”) broken by brutal violence (0:47)
• Off a cut, horn-laden archival mainstream music cue (0:55)
• Slow motion (Bad Mother Fracker) reveal/hero shot of main character (0:57)
• Slight camera tilt with power zoom (1:03 / 1:21)
• Cutesy play on words (alliteration) for name of a main character(s) (i.e., "The Brittle Brothers") (1:10)
• Schlocky piece of business on music beat/cut. Head not between Foxx and Waltz (1:17)
• Hyperbolic A-Lister (1:41)
• Film critic/film school boner shot — Blood splattering on the white cotton plants (1:55)
• Dialogue delivered devoid of emotion, thus making it both funny and menacing (2:07)