If there was an Oscar for most bizarre news of the year, surely this would be a shoo-in for a nomination. Who on earth thought it would be a good idea to cast Werner Herzog as the villain in Tom Cruise’s next vehicle? It’s so insane it just might work…

According to Variety Herzog will play the villain The Zec in One Shot, an adaptation of the novel by Lee Child. Part of the Jack Reacher series, Tom Cruise will play Reacher, the ex US military officer who now roams his country and ends up getting into all sorts of trouble. In this film, the first adaptation of the series (even though the book is the sixth), Reacher investigates a sniper accused of murder. Herzog’s character will play the man behind the big conspiracy.The films is written and directed by Chris McQuarrie (who wrote the latest Mission Impossible film and The Tourist)

Herzog has of course acted before, whether playing a version of himself in Incident at Loch Ness or in Julian Donkey-Boy as a domineering dad. But most of us know (or should know) him as a documentary and feature film director, often obsessed with the stager individuals and phenomena in this world. Those unfamiliar should check out Fitzcarraldo and Grizzly Man immediately.

We’ve gotten a few requests from the readership for hitting up more movies faster, and as such, we’ve set up a gigantic sort of multi-review, in which we hit up a block of three titles, a little older stuff, to give you a fast look at some of the stuff you may have missed out there. This week’s big old multi-review is brought to you entirely by Lions Gate, who shipped out copies of Dead Alive, Mimic and The Others for us to review.

Dead Alive offers up the story of a terminal momma’s boy who’s about to get a serious shot of growing up when he meets an attractive young woman and fends off a horde of zombies caused by a Sumatran rat monkey infected with some kind of crazy zombie germ.

Basically, Dead Alive is terrific stuff. Not only does it present a lot of bombastic zombie killing action (the part with the lawn mower blows me away every time), but also plenty of laughs. This is excellent stuff for most any crazy party, especially given that we’ve got Halloween coming up on us in rapid fashion.

The Others, meanwhile, managed to give us twisty ending right around the same time M. Night Shyamalan was actually doing it well, by bringing us Nicole Kidman as a prim British matriarch with two children with a wicked light allergy. She’s hired on a new staff of domestics to help out while her husband is away, but they’ve arrived in the midst of some strange things. And once we find out just what’s going on in the house, well, it’s going to really catch you off guard.

The Others, frankly, still stands as one of the great examples of paranormal suspense filmmaking there is out there today. With an ending that may not be conclusive but is a huge surprise, and plenty of good shocks throughout the movie, this is one that will really put a spark in a long, cold fall night.

Lastly, we have Mimic, a movie that will make sure you never look at roaches the same way again. Some genetic engineers, in a bid to defeat a horrible disease, have created something that just may cure it. But they may have traded one doom for another, as their creation takes on a life of its own.

Mimic is a strange sort of title, with an odd sort of light dystopia running through it. It’s interesting enough, to watch one kind of doom get traded for another, and the end result is a little confused but otherwise pretty nicely done.

So there you go, a block of three pretty sweet horror titles that will do a nice job of perking up one of those cold dark nights we’ve got coming up here. Obviously some are better than others, but still, the whole will prove to be solidly done.

It’s Dawn of the Dead meets High Noon in the bloody, action-packed film The Dead and the Damned, on DVD wherever they are sold.

We have our winner for this scary movie giveaway with a Western twist. Ron O. is our winner, and he says, “The mere mention of the Dead and the Damned has gotten me into the Halloween spirit! It would be spooktacular to win and enjoy! Thanks!”

You are welcome Ron and we hope you get scared watching this movie and make sure you don’t watch it alone.

Hot on the trail of a renegade Apache warrior, gun-slinging bounty hunter Mortimer passes through an 1849 California gold rush town, where local miners direct him into the mountains to track his prey.

Following a ferocious battle, Mortimer triumphantly returns to town with his Indian captive in shackles … only to find themselves surrounded by a ravenous horde of the undead. Now the two enemies must band together if they are to escape the horrors of The Dead and the Damned!

The movie sounds like the perfect feature to be watching during the Halloween season. I just hope it is not too scary.

The Heart Specialist has hit the streets and is now available wherever DVDs are sold. I happen to have an extra copy of the DVD for a giveaway.

Smooth-talking lothario* Ray Howard (Brian J. White), a young Harvard Medical School graduate, arrives for his internship at a hospital in South Florida to pursue his ex-girlfriend Valerie (Grammy Award®-winner Mya) who can’t forgive his womanizing ways.

When his supervisor, Dr. Sidney Zachary (Wood Harris), discovers that Ray has put the moves on his own girlfriend, nurse Donna (Zoe Saldana), the two conspire with the rest of the hospital staff, patients, and friends to teach Ray a lesson—not just about medicine, but also about true love.

The Heart Specialist features stellar supporting performances from Marla Gibbs, Leon Robinson, Method Man, Thomas ‘Nephew Tommy’ Miles, Jasmine Guy, Scott Paulin, Kenneth Choi, Terrence J and comic legend Ed Asner.

*a man who obsessively seduces and deceives women

To enter the giveaway, post your name and we will pick the winner October 20, 2011.

William Wyler’s Ben-Hur (1959) is one of my all time favorite movies. The characters are engaging with action pack adventure. I always think of the chariot race when someone mentions Ben Hur – it is pure entertainment.

If you are into cinematography, this movie is a cut above the rest – true product of the days of Hollywood when special effects consisted of great camera work. I can’t think of any other movie that surpasses the grandeur of Ben-Hur.

Now, you can watch it at home on a giant screen with the movie completely remastered. You will appreciate this Blu-ray package with booklets and other extras you enhance your viewing pleasure. I can safely say this is the closest near-perfect version we will ever see.

Ben-Hur took home an unprecedented 11 Academy Awards in 1959 and clearly deserved every single one. Prince Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) and his estrangement from old Roman pal Messala (Stephen Boyd) is grand in detailed, and sensitively portrayed. Directed by William Wyler, who was the junior assistant on MGM’s original silent version in 1925, the story is magnificent and never sacrifices the human focus in favor of spectacle. Miklos Rozsa’s grandiose musical score, notably one of the greatest ever written for a Hollywood picture. At four hours it’s a long tale but worth every moment.

Available on Blu-ray Combo Pack, DVD, On Demand and for Download 9/27! Please make sure you Like Ben-Hur on Facebook and Follow Ben-Hur on Twitter.

Screenhead has One (1) DVD box set to giveaway. Please post your name and I will pick the winner October 25, 2011.

Ellen Page has moved into the production of The East, a Tony Scott’s Scott Free Productions, starting with Brit Marling and Alexander Skarsgard.

According to Variety, the story concerns a private contracting firm tasked with protecting big corporations from radical environmentalists and anti-business extremists that assigns its best and brightest agent to infiltrate a mysterious anarchist organization known only as ‘The East.’

Marling portrays an undercover agent, who finds herself in love with the leader of The East, who will be played by Skarsgard. Page will play Izzy, a member of The East who used to be Skarsgard’s lover and is now jealous of the attention he pays Marling’s character.

By the way, Page spent her summer with Woody Allen shooting his “Bop Decameron” with Jesse Eisenberg, Alec Baldwin and Greta Gerwig.

DreamWorks Pictures’ War Horse, director Steven Spielberg’s epic adventure, is a tale of loyalty, hope and tenacity set against a sweeping canvas of rural England and Europe during the First World War. My daughter is so excited about seeing this movie. She loves horses, and this movie is all about a horse.

War Horse begins with the remarkable friendship between a horse named Joey and a young man called Albert, who tames and trains him. When they are forcefully parted, the film follows the extraordinary journey of the horse as he moves through the war, changing and inspiring the lives of all those he meets—British cavalry, German soldiers, and a French farmer and his granddaughter—before the story reaches its emotional climax in the heart of No Man’s Land.

What makes this story or movie so unique and endearing for those who love horses is that the First World War is experienced through the journey of this horse—an odyssey of joy and sorrow, passionate friendship and high adventure.

War Horse is one of the great stories of friendship and war— a successful book, it was turned into a hugely successful international theatrical hit that is currently on Broadway. It now comes to screen in an epic adaptation by one of the great directors in film history.

As a child, the work of strangely named Roald Dahl was possibly the most exciting. His stories capturing my childhood imagination like no other, plus it was a valid away for enjoying fart jokes without facing the disapproval from parents. So what direction will Dreamworks take with one of his most famous novels, The BFG.

The BFG (that’s Big Friendly Giant, and not a reference to that massive weapon in the Doom video games) is about a young girl who cannot sleep one night, and discovers a dream-collecting giant outside her house. The giant shows the girl his world, and they appeal to the Queen of England to help him capture other giants, who tend to eat children whenever they’re hungry.

The story has a magnificent visual scope, from the encounter with a giant, to his world, to the dreams and nightmares he can create, to the clash of worlds as the humans battle the evil giants. It’s a wonderful story that has already been made into a 1989 hand-drawn film. And of course plenty of Dahl’s other stories have made it to the big screen, ranging from the great (The Witches, Fantastic Mr Fox) to the poor (Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)

So what does Dreamworks have to offer. The company tends to be seen as a poor man’s Pixar, making technically apt films that rely on spoof humour to get laughs and tell cliched tales. But with Pixar now relying on tired sequels, perhaps it’s time for Dreamworks to step up their game (like they seemingly did with How To Train Your Dragon). It also helps that writer Melissa Mathison (E.T., The Indian in the Cupboard) is on board already.

You know, I love it when the folks out at Lions Gate ship over stuff that got its start on SyFy. They’ve made some pretty peachy monster movies so far, and while none of them will ever be mistaken for a really good movie, there’s nothing like a good monster movie to get the heart pumping and the popcorn munching. Get some friends together and some daquiris and you’ve got a Friday! And that’s just what we’ll get with Goblin, a SyFy Channel Original Movie that’s getting the video release treatment.

Goblin takes us out to Hollow Glen, where a group of villagers just celebrated Halloween by tossing a baby into a fire. Of course, the problem comes in when the baby’s mother, who turns out to be a witch, puts a heavy-duty death curse on the town, summoning up the titular goblin from the fire that her baby was chucked into. The goblin’s purpose? To slaughter every infant in the immediate vicinity. Fast forward just shy of a couple hundred years to the present era, where the goblin’s curse isn’t  as defunct as some might have thought.

This is some incredible cliche, right down to the crazy old man who gives away the entire plot in the first ten minutes. And yet, at the same time, it’s this incredible devotion to the cliche that makes this one a seriously entertaining popcorn muncher. And for all the cliches, there are still some pretty good scares in here. We’re talking about a monster that essentially flies around and is pretty much impervious to small arms fire and the like but for one whole day. It eats babies and kills whatever gets between it and a baby. The thing is not exactly a sympathetic character. If anything it’s a low-rent version of The Creeper from the Jeepers Creepers franchise except it doesn’t make things out of corpses. It just makes a lot of corpses.

The means to kill the Goblin is pure on horror movie logic, that is to say, there is none, but it doesn’t particularly matter because you’re too busy enjoying the various fight scenes. Scenery chewing, irrational behavior…it really doesn’t matter. You knew going in this wasn’t going to be a good movie, but in this case, when it gives up on good, it instead becomes fun. And fun is good enough for most anyone.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives Goblin a seven out of ten for sacrificing good on the altar of fun, and the end result is a surprisingly watchable if mind-bogglingly stupid affair.

Nicolas Winding Refn featurette

Ryan Gosling featurette

Carey Mulligan featurette

Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn throttles into the Hollywood fast lane with the precision-crafted action caper Drive.

Ryan Gosling stars as a Los Angeles wheelman for hire, stunt driving for movie productions by day and steering getaway vehicles for armed heists by night. Though a loner by nature, Driver can’t help falling in love with his beautiful neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan), a vulnerable young mother dragged into a dangerous underworld by the return of her ex-convict husband Standard (Oscar Isaac).

After a heist intended to pay off Standard’s protection money spins unpredictably out of control, Driver finds himself driving defense for the girl he loves, tailgated by a syndicate of deadly serious criminals (Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman). But when he realizes that the gangsters are after more than the bag of cash in his trunk-that they’re coming straight for Irene and her son-Driver is forced to shift gears and go on offense.

The movie was written by Oscar nominee Hossein Amini,The Wings of Dove, and adapted from the eponymous novel by James Sallis. The Wings of Dove is such a different movie than Drive. It’s hard to image they both were written by the same person.