The Last Airbender

DVD queue in need of some refreshment? Today's video releases should do the trick. There's a must-see indie from the Summer, an action adventure tale, and a holiday-themed classic to get you in the spirit!

The Kids Are All Right

This Summer's indie dramedy is one of my favorite movies of the year. The outstanding ensemble cast is led by Annette Bening and Julianne Moore as a lesbian couple whose two children decide they want to meet their biological father (Mark Ruffalo). When the two kids (Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson) want to integrate their dad into the family, all the relationships are thrown into upheaval. The only thing that's better than the acting in this movie is the dialogue, which is alternately laugh-out-loud and painfully honest. The DVD extras include a commentary track with director Lisa Cholodenko and three featurettes.

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The Last Airbender

M Night. Shyamalan put his typical thrillers on the back burner for a big screen adaptation of the popular cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender. The fantasy film takes us to a world divided by the elements: Earth, Water, Air, and Fire. A brother and sister (Nicola Peltz and Twilight's Jackson Rathbone) set out to try to make peace between the nations with the help of a young prodigy named Aang (Noah Ringer), who has the power to manipulate the elements to his advantage. Though the actors are wooden and the plot drags, the movie boasts some dazzling special effects. DVD extras include Discovering The Last Airbender (nine-part documentary in HD), deleted scenes, outtakes, and featurettes.

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Evil rules! Villain Gru and his army of minions took control of the box office over the weekend with Despicable Me. The animated flick landed in first place, raking in $60.1 million for its debut. That number exceeded studio expectations and was enough to unseat Robert Pattinson and the vampires of Eclipse, which fell to second place with $33.4 million.

Coming in third was the other big new release, Predators which earned a solid $25.3 million. Rounding out the rest of the top five was Toy Story 3 with $22 million and The Last Airbender with $17.1 million.

Photo courtesy Universal Pictures

Surprise, surprise — Eclipse continued its hot streak at the box office, taking home the holiday weekend crown and raking in $69 million (the film has made $161 million since its midnight opening on Wednesday). The Last Airbender had a decent debut weekend as well: despite harsh reviews, the action adventure took in a respectable $40.6 million.

Toy Story 3 was bumped to third but still made a healthy $30.1 million, while Grown Ups settled for fourth place with $18.5 million. Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz stayed in the top five with Knight and Day's $10.2 million. Though it's been a slow Summer for movies, the holiday weekend proved to be better than most — Eclipse had the third best Fourth of July weekend opening in history. Never underestimate the power of Edward Cullen.

Jackson Rathbone is a hot commodity this weekend with not one, but two movies in theaters. A few of our editors have already shared their thoughts on Eclipse, but to find out if you should see The Last Airbender, just watch!

Alexander Skarsgard and Kate Bosworth ducked out of a True Blood cast dinner in LA last night. Jennifer Aniston was spotted with a mystery man, and Linday Lohan complained about getting hit in the face on her 24th birthday. Plus, our reviews of Eclipse and The Last Airbender. Have a great long weekend!

Dev Patel had his Oscar de la Renta-clad girlfriend, Freida Pinto, on his arm for last night's NYC premiere of The Last Airbender. The couple spends a great deal of time together as they jet between jobs, but Dev recently put engagement rumors to rest. Joining Dev was his costar Jackson Rathbone, who's been on double promotional duty with Eclipse. Jackson's third Twilight movie has broken box office records, but his project with Dev might not be so lucky — reviews so far haven't been kind, and Buzz wasn't really a fan either.

To see more photos from the premiere, just read more

The Last Airbender may sadly be remembered as the Summer blockbuster that could have been. On paper, it has all the makings of a perfect popcorn movie: an experienced director in M. Night Shyamalan, a fan base thanks to the cartoon series on which the film is based, and a story that appears to be both intricate and action-packed. Things went awry somewhere along the way, and writer/director/producer Shyamalan is the only one to blame.

It's hard to believe the man behind The Sixth Sense is also guilty of the painful dialogue and lackluster script we're given in Airbender. While the gorgeous scenery and dizzying special effects keep the film from falling apart entirely, it's not a promising start for a franchise. To see what i mean, just read more