We are back! And I need to apologize personally for dropping off in the height of all the award-worthly releases. This site has been working hard to understand its niche in the land of film review sites. For a while there, I thought we could be Ebert, Roeper, and a third guy...something like Three Men and a Film Review Site (picture Steve with a Tom Selleck 'stache). I tried really hard to get new reviews every week and cover the new stuff as it came out. What I found out: that is not our style and we overloaded. I can not speak for Kevin and Steve, but I know that with my move to West Philadelphia, that first couple weeks of running the site, putting holes in the wall to mount coatracks, and learning to cope with my commute caused me to meltdown and put The Cardinal Review on hold.

Orignally, this site started as a way to share the thoughts Steve, Kevin, and I had on movies we managed to catch. The idea was that we would compile a database of sorts of things we had seen, so that we could browse for something to rent or go see and offer our input to anyone else would would want it. And that is what we are going to try again. Starting this week, The Cardinal Review is back and has a new mission. No longer are we going to try to do everything and write the Pulitzer Prize winning reviews we had been writting (ok, so I might have embellished a little there), but instead we are going to do our best to just keep a log of what we have seen and our thoughts. What that means for you is that we will still be doing two or three long reviews a week, but we will also be adding some capsule reviews. Quick thoughts to let you know what we liked, if it was worth going to, and coverage for things we cannot find time in our lives to sit down and really put to paper. I mean, I really do not want to spend the time to write a proper review of National Treasure 2, it hardly deserves it. But it does deserve the mention? I know there are those that are curious if it is worth the time and money to see it. (The answer is yes...but only if you like cornball dialog and absurdity).

In addition to the development of a site philosophy, we also have some start of the year business to take care of. Despite the really shaky start, 2007 turned out to be a really good year for movies. There were some great early hits like Hot Fuzz and then after a summer of dreadful sequels and Michael Bay action extravaganza (Pirates 2, Fantastic Four 2, Harry Potter 4, Die Hard 4, and Transformers anyone?) the quality of films suddenly took off. With an excellent fall peppered with Wes Anderson's newest The Darjeeling Limited, the sweet indie musical Once, Viggo's ass (and balls) in Eastern Promises, and Russell Crowe and Christian Bale squaring off in 3:10 to Yuma there was plenty to blow my paycheck on. Add in the wild and crazy Judd Apatow films Knocked Up, Superbad, and Walk Hard and there are quite a few 07 films that are going to be littering dorm rooms around America. To see the films that we enjoyed most and recommend, click to your right and check out our Top Five Films of 2007.

Even though it was a long time ago, for those of you still wondering who won our Quirk Quiz we have the answer. Trevor Baybutt was the lucky winner this time and he won a book from Quirk Books for recognizing Bruce Campbell, B-movie star par excellance. Thank you to everyone else who entered. I was really shocked by not only the number of submissions, but the number of awesome answers. I do want to give a special notice to Steve Holland for his answer: "My Boomstick - That's the actor playing the shotgun, which was purchased at S-Mart. Shop Smart, Shop S-Mart." which made me laugh hystically.

In an effort to make these questions relevant (last one was linked to the release of Bee Movie...a B-movie actor...just so we are on the same page) this week's question is in connection to the releases of both J.J. Abrams' Cloverfield (can't decide if I am excited or if the jostling camera-work will require Dramamine to watch...) and the bizarre horror film Teeth. If you have not had a chance to see the trailer for Teeth, you can check it out here - to the guys out there: it is scary, so don't say I didn't warn you.

Till next week ,
~Chris