Me I did alright or great depending on how you look at it.
If we're basing it just on the Big Six Categories I got 5 out of 6! That's pretty impressive, especially when you figure Eddie Murphy was supposed to be a shoe-in for Best Supporting but it instead went to Alan Arkin. And although the people I wanted to win Best Actor/Actress didn't win, I said who it was likely going to go to and I was right. So out of the big 6 here's how I scored:
Best Picture - The Departed - Correct
Best Director - Martin Scorsese - Correct
Best Actor - Forest Whitaker - Correct
Best Actress - Helen Mirren - Correct
Best Supporting Actor - Alan Arkin - Correct
Best Supporting Actress - Jennifer Hudson - Wrong - I picked Cate Blanchett

Now if we go with every category I was sub-par. Out of 24 Awards I picked 11 right. And even though I was wrong I was still happy that Pan's Labyrinth picked up 3 awards, and that Little Miss Sunshine walked away with the best screenplay award.
Here's the one's I got right.
Documentary Feature - An Inconvenient Truth
Makeup - Pan's Labyrinth
Art Direction - Pan's Labyrinth
Sound Editing - Letters From Iwo Jima
Visual Effects - Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Animated Feature - Happy Feet - Yes I said I wanted Monster House to win, but I said HF would likely win. Plus it was obviously the Environmental Oscars, what with them "going green" and giving awards to An Inconvenient Truth both for best song and best doc, and Happy Feet for best Animated Film. BTW in his acceptance speech when the director thanked the people who edited the trailer, i had to laugh because without them making it look like a kid's movie instead of a crappy political propaganda they wouldn't have made any money.

All in all it was the most enjoyable Academy Awards in quite sometime, a lot of which I think goes to Ellen, for doing a wonderful job as host, and for some categories which truly surprised, instead of it all being locked in months in advance.

Labels: Academy Awards, Oscar

Ok, I'll be honest my track record at picking the winners is not good at all. So this is who I feel should win of the nominees (to see the awards I gave out click here), although I will mention whose likely to win. So here we go:

Best Picture:
Tie - Little Miss Sunshine & The Departed.
Little Miss Sunshine was one of the funniest movies of last year and a suprise nominee, but the academy rarely selects a comedy so it won't likely win.
The Departed was a great action movie, with wonderful performances and a great plot. After watching the preview I didn't see any reason to see the movie as I felt it had given it all away, boy was I wrong.
But the truth is I didn't see The Queen or Letter from Iwo Jima and Babel was quite possibly the worst movie I saw last year. So I don't have much to go on.
It's anyone's race but I think The Departed will win.

Best Actor:
I honestly didn't see any of these movies so let's say Ryan Gosling, I like him and I hear he was great in Half Nelson.
But it's most likely going to Forest Whitaker.

Best Actress:
I only saw one of the movies nominated in this category, The Devil Wears Prada, but I have an affinity for Kate Winslet, so I'll go with her, but I think we all know that the trophy has been all but handed to Helen Mirren.

Best Supporting Actor:
I'd say Alan Arkin for Little Miss Sunshine, because it was a fantastic role for him.
I'm sticking with Arkin as the winner on this one.

Best Supporting Actress:
Abigail Breslin, best part of an amazing movie as she carries Little Miss Sunshine on her short little shoulders. (I just hope Jennifer Hudson loses)
I'm not putting any money on Babel, so I'll go with Cate Blanchett for Notes on a Scandal to walk away with the trophy.

Best Director:
I only saw one of the movies in this category and I have to say Scorsese did a fabulous job on The Departed, and he's not getting any younger, and this is his eighth nomination, so I'm saying not only des he deserve it, but he's getting it too.

Foreign Language Film:
If Pan's Labyrinth doesn't win this award, something is seriously wrong with this world, In fact Pan's should have been up for the Best Picture Award.

Cinematography:
Both Pan's Labyrinth and Children of Men really should win this category, but I'm going with Children of Men, which has two of the best scenes in cinema history, so it should win, for those tracking shots alone.

Original Screenplay:
Again Pan's Labyrinth should win here, it's the most imaginitive, creative movie out this year and it blows the competition away.

Adapted Screenplay:
Children of Men, hands down it's the best of the 5 listed here. I mean Borat for best screenplay, come on. If Children doesn't win, the academy needs to have professional help.

As for the rest of the categories I have no idea so here's my guesses for who will win, not who i want to win, based mostly on the titles (Unless Pan's Labyrinth or Children of Men was nominated):

Documentary Feature:
An Inconvenient Truth

Documentary Short Subject:
Recycled Life

Live Action Short Film:
Eramos Pocos

Film Editing:
Children of Men

Makeup:
Pan's Labyrinth

Art Direction:
Pan's Labyrinth

Sound Mixing:
Flags of Our Fathers

Sound Editing:
Letters from Iwo Jima

Visual Effects:
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Costume Design:
The Devil Wears Prada

Original Score:
Pan's Labyrinth

Original Song:
Our Town - Cars

Animated Feature:
Monster House
Ok so Happy Feet will likely win, because it's an enviromental film, but it's not the best animated movie, It's a propaganda film disguised as a Kid's Film and not worth anyone's time.

Animated Short Film:
No Time for Nuts

Labels: Academy Awards, Oscar

So if you're curious about Be Kind, Rewind, the movie I mentioned in my 2007 Preview about 2 guys remaking a bunch of movies when they accidentally magnetize all the videos in their store, here's an early review.

Labels: Be Kind Rewind, Review

Wanting to watch something to night or this weekend, but don't want to rely on the typical "Chick Flick" V-Day movies. Here's a guide to some alternatives for you and yours to enjoy.

The Princess Bride
Perfect for him or her! It's got Sword Fighting, Romance, ROUSes (Rodents of Unusual Size), Billy Crystal, A 6-fingered Man, A Dashing Hero, and of course Wallace Shawn! What more could you need for a great movie? How about Andre the Giant, Fred Savage, and Columbo? It all adds up to a classic, everyone can love.

Say Anything
John Cusack stars as Lloyd Dobler, your Average High School Kick-boxer who decides he's going to win over the stunningly beautiful, straight A student, and seemingly untouchable Diane (Ione Skye). Lloyd is one of the greatest characters in all of 80s cinema and Ione's Diane is great as the girl who finally learns to enjoy high school, after it's over. Not your average love-story, and definitely not a chick-flick.

For Love of the Game
Kevin Cosner stars as an aging pitcher who remembers the love of his life as he tries to pitch the perfect game. Baseball gets the guys, Cosner brings the girls.

Valentine
David Boreanez stars in this slasher flick which focuses on this wonderful Holiday. I honestly don't remember anything about this movie, but TV's Angel can't be all bad, right?

So I Married an Axe Murderer
Mike Myers and Nancy Travis brings us this romance/comedy/mystery mash-up which brings the laughs and the romance. Plus Myers as his Scottish Father is hilarious defined.


Shaun of the Dead
A romantic movie like you've never seen before. Take the story of a screw-up trying to get back the girl he loves, throw in Zombies, Gore, and Bill Nighy (Not the Science Guy The British Actor) and you've got a heck of a movie.

True Lies
Another one that's not your typical romance. This time it's Arnold the Governator and Jamie Lee Curtis as a couple who have lost their passion. All it'll take to get it back is some international intrigue, terrorists, so huge explosions, and Bill Paxton peeing his pants.

Grosse Pointe Blank
Another great movie with John Cusack. This time he's a hitman whose come home for his High School reunion, in order to take a break from his stressful career. Minnie Driver is his old flame and Dan Aykroyd is his rival. Plus the wonderful Jeremy Piven shows up as Cusack's old friend (as he does in almost all of Cusack's movies)

And that's it for now. I know there's more but if I missed one you think should be on the list, leave me a comment and let me know. As for myself I'm taking the lady out to see Music & Lyrics at a 21 & up screening at The Arclight (my favorite theater around, which tonight will be serving alcohol with the show!) plus dinner at Kabuki.


Happy V-Day to everyone!

Labels: Romantic, Valentine's

Last night, my wife and I drove out to Burbank to see a free screening of Super Bad. Before entering the movie we had to sign a form with our information on it, with some small writing. As a law student I took the time to read it and noticed that it basically states that by signing the form you will not disclose what you see in the screening in print, “Especially on a website” (Their words). So I’ve decided not to review the movie itself until closer to the release date (currently set for August 17) and instead just write about the basics and how I felt about the movie. (And to those of you reading this involved with the movie in some form {Yes you guys who found it by searching Google blogs for key words like Super Bad and Evan Goldberg, my traffic tracker tells me how you got here} if this gives to much away, tell me and I'll gladly change it, just wanted to let people know it's a funny movie.)

Super Bad was written by Seth Rogen (Yes another Seth Rogen Reference on this site) and his writing partner Evan Goldberg (The Ali G Show) and Directed by Greg Mottola (Who has mostly directed Television Episodes in the past including episodes of Arrested Development and Undeclared).

The movie is about two friends, Seth (Jonah Hill, Accepted) and Evan (Michael Cera, Arrested Development), as they near the end of high school and prepare to go their separate ways for college. The movie follows Seth and Evan for one day as they attempt to get alcohol for a huge party, a task which they believe could elevate them from geeks to heroes. What follows is a night of misadventures involving their friend Fogell (the rookie Christopher Mintz-Plasse holding his own), Seth Rogen and Bill Hader (SNL) as a pair of policemen, and much, much more. The movie was very well done, and truly was hilarious.

But, the movie is very crude and somewhat offensive, but I don’t think I’ve laugh this much during a movie since I saw Borat. The movie is sure to get an R rating purely for the language and jokes, because there’s no nudity or violence. But like a lot of the new crop of Crude Comedies, there is a sweetness and a message that underlines the vulgarity. While The 40 Year Old Virgin was about chastity and Wedding Crashers was about monogamy, Super Bad is about the love between best friends. Hill and Cera do a wonderful job of showing the love that can only come from that best friendship.

This movie just found a slot on my list of Movies to see in 2007. Even though I've already seen it, I can't wait to revisit it again in 7 months and see what has changed, even more so than with Knocked Up, because I think Super Bad was the funnier of the two, and could quite possibly be the funniest movie of 2007.

Labels: reviews, screenings, Seth Rogen, Super Bad

So yesterday over at Aint It Cool News they posted a story that I had to comment on.
Apparently Movie Posters just got better. In fact this may be the best thing to happen to Movie Posters since Movies (which itself was the best thing to happen to Movie Posters since the creation of Paper).
What, you ask, could have happened to Movie Posters that is this amazing? 3-D full color holograms. Apparently XYZ RGB, a company which offers high resolution scanning for films, has created technology that allows eight seconds of video to be manufactured as a paper thin 3-D hologram Movie Poster!!!
Yes, that's right 8 seconds of video on a piece of paper. I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but if you think about it, any amount of seconds on a Piece of Paper is a lot! From the videos they have it appears to work like the lenticular posters that have been around for years, only better. Basically you move your head or walk from side to side and it appears to move. But these are Amazing. The best one appears to be the soccer player, but they all look pretty sweet. (You can see all these by clicking on the story Link above)
James Cameron has already apparently jumped on this bandwagon, with the company already having created a special T2 poster for him.
Seriously this could revolutionize the Movie Poster industry, imagine placing a small clip of your movie on the Poster, showing much more than the normal poster does.
Or you could place several different posters on the same sheet, that change as you move.
Check out all the sites linked in the AICN story, you won't be sorry.

Labels: 3-d, hologram, movie posters

Coming This Week:

Unfortunately I’ve been sick and busy this week so I didn’t get all of these up earlier in the week, but here’s the movies hitting theaters this week.

Hannibal Rising

Yet another in the line of sequels/prequels to The Silence of the Lambs. Seriously after Hannibal and Red Dragon do we need anymore Hannibal? (If you want to see another movie with Hannibal that was actually good go rent Manhunter the first movie based on Red Dragon) The movie has something to do with how Hannibal became the monster he is today. But is there anyone who still cares?

Starring: Gaspard Ulliel as Lecter, Rhys Ifans, and Li Gong.

Rated: R for strong grisly violent content and some language/sexual references.

Norbit

Once again Eddie Murphy returns to what he seems to like best, playing multiple characters in the same movie. Here he plays an average Joe, named Norbit, Rasputia, Norbit’s monster of a fiancé, and Mr. Wong, who I can only assume will be the Mr. Miyagi-like sage who dispenses with advice. The movie follows Murphy (Norbit) as he tries to escape Murphy (Rasputia) to be with the woman of his dreams, his childhood sweetheart, played by Murphy…no not really Thandie Newton plays the girl.

Starring: Eddie Murphy, Thandie Newton, Terry Crews, and Cuba Gooding Jr. (Who continues his post-Oscar run of questionable movies)

Rated: PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, some nudity and language

In My Opinion:

Truthfully if your only choices are the new movies out this week, my advice is to stay home. I haven’t heard much about Norbit, so I’d wait until next week to hear how the reviews are, as some of Murphy’s movies have been questionable in the last few years. As for Hannibal Rising, if you really must see a scary movie stay in, save some money and rent The Changeling.

The Changeling is a great flick from 1980, which follows George C. Scott as a man who has recently lost his family as he moves into a new house. Turns out the house is haunted and Scott races to find out what happened and solve the mystery of the Ghost's murder. A Classic, that many people haven’t seen, it’s got great scares and an actual plot.

As Usual I will also tell you to go see Pan’s Labyrinth & Children of Men if you’ve yet to do so, as I will continue to do until both have left the theaters.

Also here’s a Head’s Up for everyone for the weekend of Feb 24^th. Select AMC theaters are showing all 5 movies nominated for Best Picture at this years Academy Awards. The Price is $30 and you get a Free large Popcorn and Soda with unlimited refills. Not a bad deal for only $30. Follow the link above to find out if it’s showing near you.

Labels: Changeling, Hannibal Rising, new releases, Norbit, recommendations

Sorry this is late, but here's the DVD releases for Yesterday.

The Grudge 2
The original was a great, moody, suspenseful horror movie, so of course you knew there would be a sequel. I didn't waste my time with this one, so I can't tell you if it's any good, but probably not.

Hollywoodland
In my opinion this is the release of the week. This was one of my favorite movies of 2006 and I'm still upset that Ben Affleck didn't get an Academy Award Nomination for Best Actor. The story of one of the biggest mysteries in Hollywood History, the death of George Reeves, TV's Superman. Officially ruled a suicide, many claim that Reeves was murdered by any number of people, and this movie explores all of the possibilities. (Personally I find it hard to believe it was a suicide, because as far as I know most people committing Suicide don't miss several times before they shot themselves, and since there were several other bullet holes in the bedroom, I'm saying Murder.)
This movie features a wonderful extended cast, with some of my favorite character actors.
Special Features Include a commentary with the Director, Deleted Scenes, and 3 featurettes.
If you can only afford one movie this week, pick this one up.

Hellboy: Sword of Storms
The first of two animated Hellboy movies hitting DVD this year. Featuring the voices of the cast members of the Live Action movie. This one aired on Cartoon Network last year. Special Features include 5 separate featurettes and a discussion panel from the 2006 Comic Con.

The Science of Sleep
Director Michel Gondry (the upcoming Be Kind, Rewind and The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) comes this trippy movie starring Gael García Bernal. The movie focuses on Stephane a man who lives in his own dream world. When Stephane meets his new neighbor Stephanie he falls head over heels in love and determines to win her over by showing her his dream world.

Flags Of Our Fathers
This was slated to be Director Clint Eastwood's big Oscar film of the year, but instead it's companion piece Letter from Iwo Jima won all the nominations. This big budget film follows the men who planted the flag in the no infamous photo as they return home to do a press tour.
If you only see one movie about Iwo Jima it should probably be the other one, but if you see 2 check this one out.

Cinderella III
Really there's already been one sequel? Enough Said.

Flicka
A sweet film for the little girl in all of us. Or something like that.

Running with Scissors
Based on the best selling book, unfortunately this wasn't a best selling movie.

National Lampoon's TV the Movie
Stars Steve-O from Jackass, does anyone need to know anymore?


Coming This Week:
Hannibal Rising

Yet another in the line of sequels/prequels to The Silence of the Lambs. Seriously after Hannibal and Red Dragon do we need anymore Hannibal? (If you want to see another movie with Hannibal that was actually good go rent Manhunter the first movie based on Red Dragon) The movie has something to do with how Hannibal became the monster he is today. But is there anyone who still cares?

Starring: Gaspard Ulliel as Lecter, Rhys Ifans, and Li Gong.

Rated: R for strong grisly violent content and some language/sexual references.

Labels: DVD releases

So I'm working on a few new blog entries, so keep your eyes peeled. Today I will hopefully get a new weekly column started with another new weekly column coming this Friday.
Also keep watching this site over the next few months as I get a logo up and get the site launched on it's own, instead of just redirecting to this blog site.

Coming This Week:

In case you missed it earlier this week here’s a Recap of what movies are getting a wide release this week. (Now With Links!)

The Messengers

Kristen Stewart (Zathura, The upcoming In The Land of Women) stars as a teenage girl whose family moves into a rundown sun flower far in the country. Her little brother begins to see strange things and she begins to notice an unsettling change in her father (Dylan McDermott). Directed by brothers Danny & Oxide Pang and produced by Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert under their Ghost House label, this movie looks like another in the line of Asian Horror being remade in America, but this is an original tale. The Pang brothers have directed several horror movies in their home country, including The Eye (Which is currently being remade here with Jessica Alba) and promise to bring more of the same in this movie.

Also Starring: Penelope Ann Miller and John Corbett

Rated: PG-13 for mature thematic material, disturbing violence and terror.

Because I Said So

Diane Keaton (The Family Stone, Father of the Bride) stars as Daphne the mother of three girls who decides to set up her youngest, Milly, with the perfect man, in order to prevent her from making the same mistakes she did. What Milly doesn’t know is that her mother found the man by placing a personal ad. Also it seems to involve a romance between Daphne and Rev. Camden (7^th Heaven’s Stephen Collins).

Also Starring: Mandy Moore, Lauren Graham, Piper Perabo, and Tom Everett Scott.

Rated: PG-13 for sexual content including dialogue, some mature thematic material and partial nudity.

What Should You See:

If you still haven’t seen them then this weekend you should be going out to see Children of Men & Pan’s Labyrinth. Also if you missed The Departed now’s your second chance as it was re-released last weekend, I highly recommend it and picked it as one of my top of 2006.

As for myself I actually would like to see both of these. The Messengers looks to be a good thriller/horror movie that relies more on suspense to scare us then the recent crop of “Torture horror” which seems to rely only on the gut-lurching gore to gross out the audience and keep them scared by the threat of more. I seriously can’t stomach those movies. But with Sam Raimi as a producer I have some faith that it will be a decent film.

But the movie I will most likely see this weekend is Because I Said So. The wife really wants to see this one, and when the wife wants to see a movie I take her up on that option, as I see most of the movies I see alone. But this one seems to have something for everyone, for the ladies it’s got the “Typical Chick Flick Plot” (I assume it’s plot A Girl meets Boy, Girl and Boy fall in love, a Misunderstanding tears them apart, Misunderstanding is resolved and Boy and Girl end up together, See pretty much every Romantic Comedy Ever Made for Examples) and for the gents it’s got Mandy Moore, Lauren Graham, and Piper Perabo and that’s a Trifecta of Beauty.

Labels: Because I Said So, new releases, The Messengers