And I am telling you that I am going... to see Dreamgirls... on Christmas Day.

That's right -- it's 9:00am on the holiest day of the year, the paper still a-crinklin' on freshly unwrapped presents, and all I can think about is just how hard Beyonce is going to knock my socks off tonight (girlfriend's already doing it with B*Day, which gets about five listens a day on my iPod.) Jennifer Hudson is like totally gonna win an Oscar. Anika Noni Rose is the cutest! Oh yeah... Jamie Foxx AND Eddie Murphy. All these incredible stars, working together, with masterful Bill Condon at the helm?

OMG.

The anticipation for Dreamgirls has been percolating in this young editor's mind (in her heart!) since earlier this year. I recall sitting in a crowded New York City megaplex, waiting for the next installment of some crapola blockbuster, when this dark, mysterious trailer melted off my entire face with its explosive sultriness -- the blue, the smoke, the sequins! I wanted to die right there... But I had no idea why. What was this Dreamgirls? Why was I the only person below 14th St. who didn't own the vinyl and tape cassette and CD recordings of the original Broadway cast?

Whatever. I get it now. The parade of nonstop media coverage -- with every establishment from The New York Observer to Vanity Fair to The New Yorker singing the film's praises -- taught me that Dreamgirls was a big, huge musical in the early 80s, and everyone's been dying for it to appear on the silver screen, and now it is. With Beyonce. And that's awesome.

Though a longer version with much more footage has since been released, here's the original "teaser" trailer that left me in a puddle on the theater floor. Merry Christmas!

This new trailer for next summer's... action sensation? Colossal failure? Well, we're not quite sure what it's going to be, but whatever it is, it really wants you to know that Steven Spielberg is involved. Transformers is still a Michael Bay film, though, which means that no doubt the effects and action will be top-notch -- the CGI transformations teasing us here are alone enough to get us excited. Sure, Casino Royale had that awesome car-flipping stunt -- but Transformers makes a TANK spin into the air. Beat that, James Bond!

So, sure, this movie's going to look awesome. The real question awaiting us on Independence Day is: will this movie be just as self-important and overblown as, well, every other film Michael Bay has ever done? Or will there remain some vestige of the child-like glee that comes with cars and trucks transforming into giant robots? I'm sure we all hope so. But if you're looking for someone to make giant robots seem dull and pompous, Michael Bay is the man for the job.

Clearly, with tomorrow's release of Rocky Balboa, Hollywood is telling us that there is no franchise too dead and rotting to resurrect. Movies like Rocky Balboa, Live Free or Die Hard, and Basic Instinct 2 are like a new breed of zombie film, only this time the puffy, botox-ridden movie stars are eating away at your brains in an entirely different manner- through your own nostalgia.

However, despite my wariness of Rocky Balboa's senior citizen bout, the early press has been resoundingly positive. Not to mention, one Daily Reel contributor has been threatening to be first in line on opening day for the past 3 weeks. But will he be first in line for Rambo IV: Pearl of the Cobra when it arrives next Fall? Doubtful. I, for one, will remain in my tower with my sawed-off shotgun, ready to take these franchise zombies out at any cost.

It's been over ten years since Bruce Willis challenged our expectations of ass-kickery with the Die Hard franchise, and what's happened since then? Nothing good, that's for damn sure. Thank god he's back.

The first half of this "leaked" trailer for Live Free or Die Hard is a tense montage of American propaganda -- stars and stripes waving, national monuments sillouetted in grim black and white. But then, there are forty-five seconds of explosions and guns (which, you could argue, is just another form of American propaganda). And in those forty-five seconds of action, there are two car stunts that are unlike anything we've ever seen before, because we live in a sad little world that lacks awesome.

So will this movie sate our inner adolescent, who've yearned for the simple pleasure of Bruce with a machine gun and a tank top? Oh, man, we hope so. Where have you gone, John McClane? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you. Now get to work saving Justin Long's hipster ass. Without him, who will sell America its iBooks?