Scrubs

Pay attention, kids

With XMas having passed, the web now turns to it's yearly job of try to "top" the famous "Nintendo 64 Kid" video from a few years back. I've seen a bunch already this year, and I was noticing a depressing trend: It's not "cute" with current-gen gaming systems.

Call it nostalgiac projection (i.e. 30something geeks like me liked N64 Kid because "that was us") but, well... seeing this year's crop of kids flipping their shit about an XBox 360 mainly made me think more on the lines of "Great. Dollars-to-donuts that kid is going be cheap-sniping and/or hurling unspecific xenophobic insults at me on Live within a week." Humbug.

But this... this is something else. Take a look:
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1926915

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

The "hook" here, if you haven't already seen it, is that the kid gets a 360 (for his birthday, though this is being called an xmas vid all over the web) and what looks like a mega-super-edition of Halo3 and reacts, well... gratefully. As in, instead of losing his shit in a giant joygasm, he's completely overcome with gratitude to his parents for the gift. You kinda have to wait for the last few moments for a bit of info that puts it all in context as to what might've helped shape his Tiny Tim-esque outlook on life, but the main thing is that the kid seems both TOTALLY surprised and accutely aware of what a lavish expense it is for mom and dad - he's got quite the vocabulary for a young kid, but the word "entitled" doesn't seem to be among them.

Kids, watch careful: THIS is what your parents are looking to see when you tear into the "big" gift.

The Girlfriend Experience

With Sasha Grey

Escape to the Movies: "Sherlock Holmes"

What, you were expecting me to take the day off?



And here's INTERMISSION, in which I do the year-end top-ten thing:\
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/moviebob/6940-MovieBobs-Best-Of-2009

Merry Christmas! (Or holiday of your choosing, of course.)

Ornaments

Just in time for the Holidays, here's some fun nonsense courtesy Christopher Knight and the L.A. Times: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/12/a-warhol-christmas-at-the-white-house.html

Short version: The kids over at Andrew Breitbart's twin conservative-entertainment-professional wildlife preserves, "Big Hollywood" and "Big Government," (which politically saavy people, liberals especially, should be checking at least once a day; because it's basically a one-stop source for tomorrow's crazy today) were in a snit about the White House Christmas Tree. Specifically, that newly-minted official-decorator Simon Doohan (an underground-art type, apparently) had included some collage-art ornaments made from image-scraps including a photoshop of Obama on Mt. Rushmore (okay, a little tacky) and transvestite performer Hedda Lettuce (I have no idea.) The worst offense, though, was a fragment of a Chairman Mao pic - further evidence, y'see, of Obama's hidden communism...

...except for the detail that the image in question was actually Andy Warhol's PARODY painting of Mao - the one wherein he defaced the dictator's famous portrait with lipstick and mascara.

Oops.

Scroll down through the comments on Knight's article for Breitbart (who, all kidding aside, strikes me as far too sharp to keep getting caught in this shit - dude needs to crack the whip on his people) making an utter fool of himself defending the "reporting" (best to take the LOW bet on how long it takes for Reducto ad Hiterlium to rear it's head.)

Karate (?) Kid

Comingsoon has the new trailer for the "Karate Kid" remake, which for those who hadn't heard takes a pretty radical story-deviation from the original: Instead of the titular "kid" (Jaden Smith, son of Will and Jada) moving to a new town, he moves to a new COUNTRY - to China, specifically. Beyond that, the main beats look similar with the kid taking shit from bullies and fighting back by learning martial-arts from Mr. Miyagi - played in this version by Jackie Chan. Yes, Jackie Chan.

Trailer looks like about what you'd expect, right down to that awful song that was overused in every sneaker commercial and highlight reel of the last two years, but it's got my interest for two reasons. Firstly: There looks to be A LOT of location shooting in this, so it's going to be interesting to learn how much (and what kind) of input the Chinese government had over the portrayal of, well... anything. Secondly: It's a little shocking to see Jackie Chan seemingly acting his ass off in the role. You'd think this would be the definition of a "paycheck" part, and Chan has been alarmingly candid about how little regard he has for his English language films, but in the footage here he's playing Miyagi straight and serious with a "patrician hardass" vibe that's worlds away from the fun-loving regular joe guy he plays in... well, pretty-much everything.




For what it's worth, Chan learned HIS craft in the infamously-punishing children's program of the Peking Opera School, meaning he's had lots of experience with rough-hewn, unforgiving instructors of young students; so maybe that's where this surprising-looking spin on Miyagi is coming from.

Oh, and just to get started early on what will easily be the most annoying (yet true) bit of fanboy-bitching of the year right off the bat: WHY is it still called "The Karate Kid" when it no longer has any connection to Japan and they clearly AREN'T using Karate? (I imagine that the filmmakers are smart enough to know this but don't want to lose the title, and furthermore I'd bet that there'll be a running gag about it on the lines of The Kid calling it "Karate" and having to be corrected.)

Marketing Movies - Update

So seems that's America where marketing reflects their society. Please check the trailer that was recently released in UK, surely and clearly sells a gay drama.



--end of update--

Marketing can make or kill a movie and now that we are in Oscar season strange things start to happen like for example what a distributor is doing to the movie A Single Man that recently released a second trailer that totally removes the gayness from the plot. Take a look at both trailers.

Trailer issued by Tom Ford's production company



Trailer issued by the distributor



So, what do you think??? Isn't terrible what marketing can do??? Did you noticed that in the second trailer they removed Colin's character two lovers actors names from the credits?! And if you watch the second trailer in Youtube and read the info you will notice that it does not say a thing about this movie being totally gay.

I don't think that issuing a de-gaying trailer will help the film with the homophobic Academy members, meaning, will not increase or decrease its chances. Colin Firth already has buzz for best actor, so perhaps they are trying to get buzz for Moore like they claim in the trailer. Haven't seen the film but if they are trying to break the Brokeback Mountain Oscar curse, it will not be by pretending that this film is not gay.

Sigh.

14th Annual Satellite Award Winners

Winners are in *RED.

Today the International Press Academy announced the nominations for the 2009 Satellite Awards and here are the nominees for some of the categories.

Motion Picture (Drama)
"Bright Star"
"An Education"
*"The Hurt Locker"
"The Messenger"
"Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire"
"The Stoning of Soraya M."

Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical)
"The Informant!"
"It's Complicated"
"Julie & Julia"
*"Nine"
"A Serious Man"
"Up in the Air"

Foreign Language Film (tie)
*"Broken Embraces"
"I Killed My Mother"
*"The Maid"
"Red Cliff"
"The White Ribbon"
"Winter in Wartime"

Motion Picture (Animated or Mixed Media)
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
*The Fantastic Mr. Fox
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Princess and the Frog
Up
Where the Wild Things Are

Director
Jane Campion for Bright Star
Neill Blomkamp for District 9
Lone Scherfig for An Education
*Kathryn Bigelow for Hurt Locker
Rob Marshall for Nine
Lee Daniels forPrecious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire

Actress (Drama)
*Shohreh Aghdashloo in The Stoning of Soraya M.
Emily Blunt in The Young Victoria
Abbie Cornish inBright Star
Penelope Cruz in Broken Embraces
Carey Mulligan in An Education
Catalina Saavedra in The Maid

Actor (Drama)
Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart
Hugh Dancy in Adam
Johnny Depp in Public Enemies
Colin Firth in A Single Man
*Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker
Michael Sheen inThe Damned United

Actress (Comedy Or Musical)
Sandra Bullock in The Proposal
Marion Cotillard in Nine
Zooey Deschanel in (500) Days of Summer
Katherine Heigl in The Ugly Truth
*Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia

Actor (Comedy Or Musical)
George Clooney in Up in the Air
Bradley Cooper in The Hangover
Matt Damon in The Informant!
Daniel Day-Lewis in Nine
*Michael Stuhlbarg in A Serious Man

Supporting Actress
Emily Blunt in Sunshine Cleaning
Penelope Cruz in Nine
Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air
Mozhan Marno in The Stoning of Soraya M.
*Mo'Nique in Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire

Supporting Actor
Woody Harrelson in The Messenger
James McAvoy in The Last Station
Alfred Molina in An Education
Timothy Spall in The Damned United
*Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds (He has to get the Oscar!)

Ten Best Films of 2009
Bright Star
An Education
(500) Days of Summer
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Nine
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
A Serious Man
The Stoning of Soraya M.
Up in the Air

To check the nominees in all categories including TV go here. The awards presentation will take place on Sunday December 20, 2009. To check winners in all categories please go here.

Brittany Murphy, RIP

http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=26568

What. The. Fuck?

Not much to say about this save that it sucks. She worked so intermittently (save for a decade of playing Luanne on "King of The Hill") and often in such forgettable projects, people generally overlooked how talented she was.

Funny People

Escape to the Movies: "Avatar"

You were expecting, maybe, "Did You Hear About The Morgans?"


http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escape-to-the-movies/1333-Avatar

And, as always, here's this week's "Intermission" column, which is also (mostly) about "Avatar."

2 steps forward, 1 step back?

When you're a movie geek, some days look like this:

ITEM: After departing the "X-Men" series to make a perhaps-too-introspective "Superman" movie that me and like five other people still like and, in doing so, freeing up the combined efforts of Tom Rothman and McG to steer the franchise into one of the most spectacular protracted artistic-suicides in memory (seriously, at least the original "Batman" movies ENDED after the fourth one... they made a whole OTHER MOVIE after "X3!!!"); Bryan Singer will apparently RETURN to direct "X-Men: First Class," a prequel (reboot?) with Cyclops, Jean, Storm etc. in their student-age days at the Xavier School. So, "Harry Potter" but with the X-Men. SOLD! Best of all, this almost-certainly means no Wolverine, so the other characters might actually get to DO something for a change.
http://www.joblo.com/singer-back-for-x-men

But then...

ITEM: "Spider-Man 4" is apparently officially "stalled" (as in, not moving forward) because - surprise surprise! - Sony and Sam Raimi are fighting over the villain. Raimi wants Silver Age mainstay "The Vulture," Sony wants... NOT The Vulture. If true, this is exactly what happened with #3: Raimi wanted Sandman and Vulture to continue his preferred trend of using the classic Spidey enemies, Sony (and Marvel) forced his hand for the more marketable Venom. Amazingly, damn near EVERYONE - even non-geeks - is aware that this went down last time, yet they're possibly at it AGAIN? I wonder who the studio-preferred nemesis would be... they wouldn't REALLY try and make him go with the (amazingly even MORE worthless than Venom "Carnage," would they??)
http://iesb.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7951:spider-man-4-production-on-indefinite-hold&catid=43:exclusive-features&Itemid=73

UPDATE: AICN is reporting that the Spider-Man story isn't true, or rather that the work-stoppage isn't true, since the "arguing over the bad guy" thing has been out there for a few weeks now: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/43405

ALSO, apparently it's called "Spider-M4N" now.

Iron Man 2

Apple (and now everyone else) has the Iron Man 2 trailer, already up:


http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/ironman/

Not much that hasn't been seen if you poked around for the Comic-Con footage, but looks pretty good. "New" money-shot is Iron Man and War Machine teamed up fighting what looks to be a bunch of other armored enemies (or are these full-on ROBOTS now? THAT would be pretty great.)

Obviously, hardcore geeks like myself are watching stuff like this looking for different stuff than most of the audience, who're likely just glad for the "yes, there's an Iron Man 2" factor. What might we be "looking for?" Why, "Avengers" crossover-clues, of course! So what's going through MY mind? Well...

First good listen to Mickey Rourke's Russian-accented dialogue for Whiplash. Digging the juxtaposition of the self-made hardcase baddie with the sleek, high-end good guy. More noteworthy, to me at least: Whiplash makes it clear he has a mad-on not just for Stark, but the Stark "family line." For the record: IMDB lists actor John Slattery as playing Howard Stark and also a role for "Young Tony Stark," so... flashbacks?

That's interesting, since the previous film also took time to mention that the elder Stark had been big in the morally-dubious military/weapons field, too; AND Stark's appearance in "The Incredible Hulk" indicated that he's been aware for some time of the WWII-era Super-Soldier program, i.e. the source of that serum that turns Tim Roth into The Abomination... which, for those without a devoted nerd in your life to point such things out, was marked with a scientist's name that "confirmed" that this is supposed to be the same stuff that gave Captain America his powers. So, I'm thinking: Is THIS (Stark Industries going back to WWII and possible involvement with Cap and/or the forerunners of S.H.I.E.L.D.) a big part of how they'll tie all this together? (Dear lord... if some fragment of Captain America turns up as the "tie-in tease" for this, I'll shit a solid gold brick.)

Also: No good look at Sam Rockwell as (apparently) the main bad guy, Justin Hammer. In the comics, Hammer is one of the Marvel Universe's endlessly-useful "weapon-making-bad-guys," an evil counterpart to Stark who's made gear for something like 70-80% of the supervillains. He also figures prominently in both the "Armor Wars" and "Demon In A Bottle" story-arcs, the two most-prominent ongoing stories in Iron Man prior to "Civil War." "Armor Wars," incidentally, involved Stark fighting bad/corrupted robots and robo-suits made by the army and others using his tech, which would make sense given the Senate scenes and the other robots/armors in the trailer. (I won't say what it is and advise you not to look, but the reliably-sloppy IMDB lists another specific Marvel character in the roster, though the listed-casting a certain scenes from this trailer lead me to conclude that someone has a wire crossed somewhere.)

Nice to see Nick Fury getting some trailer-love, and in addition Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow looks even better than I'd hoped for.

SHORT FEATURE: PEACE ON EARTH

You did it, you finally did it, damn you all to hell! You Maniacs! You blew it up! And now the whole world has been left in the stinking paws of a bunch of damned dirty… squirrels? Well, that’s how Hugh Harman and the folks at MGM saw it back in 1939, anyway, when they released this cheery holiday tale about the demise of the entire human race. Hey kids, you better watch out, you better not cry, because you’ll probably all be meeting God before the morning light comes. Merrrrry Christmas!

Oh well, you have to give the little yard rats some credit. At least they picked a Good Book to base their new society’s philosophy on. Gotta love the whole “swords into plowshares” mentality of using the army helmets for habitats. Still, we don’t really need to wait until the vermin rule the world for we humans to learn the same lessons. Under the ‘just war” section of the Catechism it clearly states that “the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated. The power of modem means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition… "Every act of war directed to the indiscriminate destruction of whole cities or vast areas with their inhabitants is a crime against God and man, which merits firm and unequivocal condemnation." A danger of modern warfare is that it provides the opportunity to those who possess modern scientific weapons especially atomic, biological, or chemical weapons - to commit such crimes.” Pondering this point led Pope Benedict to offer his personal thoughts that, even though national defense is a moral imperative, “given the new weapons that make possible destructions that go beyond the combatant groups, today we should be asking ourselves if it is still licit to admit the very existence of a "just war."

In the end, the best way to avoid the dilemma of such a decision is to (ironically) launch a preemptive attack. You see, a lot of people mistake Christian pacifism like the Pope’s for mere passivism. But as the Catechism explains, “Peace is not merely the absence of war, and it is not limited to maintaining a balance of powers between adversaries. Peace cannot be attained on earth without safeguarding the goods of persons, free communication among men, respect for the dignity of persons and peoples, and the assiduous practice of fraternity. Peace is "the tranquility of order." Peace is the work of justice and the effect of charity.” In this mindset, war is actually just a symptom of a much bigger problem. That’s why Jesus didn’t ride into battle brandishing a sword, but rather spent his time curing the sick and feeding the hungry. While there may be, regretfully, times when war is unavoidable, Jesus showed us the face of the real enemy which must be fought every day. So, in this season of Peace on Earth and goodwill towards man, let’s all prepare to go to war, shall we? Let’s keep up the good fight now so that we can avoid as many battlefields as we can, especially that one which leads to the possible dark future where the honneeks inherit the Earth.

(Honneek, by the way, is the word for squirrel in the language of the Delaware tribe. THAT’S how far I’ll go for a bad pun.)

Alice in Thunderdome

Sometimes, it's helpful to remember that all the GOOD points of the Hollywood "blockbuster machine" having been taken over by the general mindset of a 13 year-old boy (see: Marvel Films' "Avengers" master-plan) come with their price - namely that 13 year-old boys can be pretty daft a lot of the time.

For example, around that age, it's customary to arrive at the assumption that EVERYTHING can be improved by turning it into some kind of Epic Battle - especially if the Epic Battle is also Grim n' Gritty - up to and including otherwise-good-natured superheroes and whimsical fairytales. It's this kind of thinking among 13 year-olds during my time as such that was largely responsible for Image Comics, and right now it seems to be responsible for re-imagining every movie property in the context of a Boris Vallejo/Julie Bell tableau (or, in studio-speak, "we're goin' for a "Pirates of the Carribean" angle."

To that end, here's the new-er trailer for Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" dealie, which despite what you're brain may be telling you he HASN'T already made seven or eight times...
http://wdmp-wdsmp.rd.llnw.net/wdsmp/AIW/Trailer5/AIW_Trailer5_480.mov

Gotta give `em credit, at least, for seemingly hitting every damn mark of this type of "reimagining:" Pseudo-sequelism? Check. Hero-as-vaugely-chosen? Check. Most-prominent baddie as world-conquest supervillain? Check. Massing armies of storm-troopers? Check. And dig what appears to be Alice striding out into the midst of a Braveheart-fight in full battle armor, or Depp's Mad Hatter wielding a broadsword. Or maybe it's kidding, and this is all out of context...

2010 Golden Globe Awards Nominations

Just a few minutes ago the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced this year nominees for the major categories. Presenters were Diane Kruger, John Krasinski (funny moment when his wife Emily blunt got nominated for Young Victoria) and (believe it or not) Justin Timberlake. The nominees are not yet posted at the official site, but from what I was able to watch here are the nominees.

Best Picture Drama
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
Up in the Air

Best Picture Comedy or Musical
(500) Days of Summer
The Hangover
It’s Complicated
Julie & Julia
Nine

Best Director
Katheryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker
James Cameron for Avatar
Clint Eastwood for Invictus
Jason Reitman for Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino for Inglorious Basterds

Best Actress Drama
Emily Blunt in The Young Victoria
Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side
Helen Mirren in The Last Station
Carey Mulligan in An Education
Gabourey Sibide in Precious

Best Actor Drama
Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart
George Clooney in Up in the Air
Colin Firth in A Single Man
Morgan Freeman in Invictus
Tobey Maguire in Brothers

Best Actress Comedy or Musical
Sandra Bullock in The Proposal
Marion Cotillard in Nine
Julia Roberts in Duplicity
Meryl Streep in It’s Complicated
Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia

Best Actor Comedy or Musical
Matt Damon in The Informant!
Daniel Day-Lewis in Nine
Robert Downey Jr. In Sherlock Holmes
Joseph Gordon-Levitt in (500) Days of Summer
Michael Stuhlbarg in A Serious Man

Best Supporting Actress
Penelope Cruz in Nine
Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air
Anne Kendrick in Up in the Air
Mo’Nique in Precious
Julianne Moore in A Single Man

Best Supporting Actor
Matt Damon in Invictus
Woody Harrelson in The Messenger
Christopher Plummer in The Last Station
Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz in Inglorious Basters

Best Foreign Language Film
A Prophet
Baaria
Broken Embraces
La Nana (The Maid)
The White Ribbon

Best Animated Feature Film
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess and the Frog
UP

By the time I finished writing the announcement is at the official site and to check the nominees in all categories, including TV, please go here. Later I will do the analysis (like I did last year) and will modify the post.

Spontaneously great reaction to Marion Cotillard nomination, well-deserved two nominations for Meryl Streep, so glad that Quentin is nominated (great movie) and there are some nominated films that I will have a hard time watching Precious (sorry, but I didn't like it at all) and The Hurt Locker (I'll try to watch it). Very happy with Chile's The Maid nomination and is already must be seen for me Italy's Baaria; have seen all the others in the foreign language category.

Here is the list will all the nominated films and the nominations each got.

Up in the Air 6
Nine 5
Avatar 4
Inglourious Basterds 4
The Hurt Locker 3
Invictus 3
It's Complicated 3
Precious 3
A Single Man 2
(500) Days of Summer 2
Brothers 2 (Seen the original, this is the American remake)
Crazy Heart 2
The Informant! 2
Julie & Julia 2
The Last Station 2
Up 2
Baaria 1
The Blind Side 1
Broken Embraces 1
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 1
Coraline 1
District 9 1
Duplicity 1
An Education 1
Fantastic Mr. Fox 1
The Hangover 1
The Lovely Bones 1
The Maid 1
The Messenger 1
The Princess and the Frog 1
A Prophet 1
A Serious Man 1
Sherlock Holmes 1
Where the Wild Things Are 1
The White Ribbon 1
The Young Victoria 1

Kingdom of Gladiator Hood

COMING SOON has the first actual trailer (an "international" sizzle-reel type thing) for Ridley Scott's "Robin Hood" movie:



...yeah. This is another one of those teasers, like the early ones for "Sherlock Holmes." that're so concerned with reminding you of other recent movies the target-demo may have liked (in this case: 300, Gladiator, King Arthur, LOTR and so on) that there's really no way to tell what the hell it is until the title comes up - before that, this might as well be the trailer for "Untitled Medieval Russel Crowe Actioner #5." That it doesn't look especially different "aesthetically" from "Prince of Thieves" over a decade ago is... not a good sign. Still, one must remember that this is Ridley Scott, who's movies are usually better than their trailers (or, in some cases, the version that actually opened - if you've not seen the director's cut of "Kingdom of Heaven," DO SO: It's one of the best films of his career.)

The history of this production has been ridiculous - assuming that ANY of it has been true: Depending on who you ask, this may or may not have started as a project called "Nottingham," which would've been a revisionist version of the story with Robin as an illegitimately-lionized thug with a flair for self-promotion and the Sherriff as the put-upon good guy trying to bring him down even with "the people" against him. Sounds cool, right? Well, whether or not that was ever the case, it wasn't for long: The next anyone heard of it, no one could confirm which of the two roles Crowe would be playing, and a NEW rumor surfaced that he'd actually be BOTH - either as some kind of "meta" casting or another "revisionist" take in which "Robin" is actually Nottingham's secret-identity, which he creates in order to subvert The Crown himself. Also a nifty take, also apparently not-happening.

There's also been some unsubstantiated talk that the people paying for the production more-or-less "demanded" that Scott/Crowe deliver a straight-ahead "unofficial-sequel-to-Gladiator" style take; resulting in this film which Universal is describing as another "real history behind the legend" go-round of the familair outline - i.e. Robin as disillusioned Crusades veteran who forms a woodland guerilla posse to fight unfair taxation.

XXIV Goya Awards News – Latin American Films

From November 30th to December 4th Academy members had the opportunity to watch 10 Latin American films that have been submitted for their consideration to be nominated. These are the films.

Dawson Isla, Miguel Litin, Chile
Desierto Adentro, Rodrigo Pla, Mexico
El Secreto de sus Ojos, Juan Jose Campanella, Argentina
Gestacion, Esteban Ramirez, Costa Rica
Gigante, Adrian Biniez, Uruguay
La Sangre y la LLuvia, Jorge Navas, Colombia
La Teta Asustada, Claudia Llosa, Peru
Los Dioses Rotos, Ernesto Daramas, Cuba
Tierra de Hombres Libres, Roman Chalbaud, Venezuela
Zona Sur, Juan Carlos Valdivia, Bolivia

To check the news go to the official site available only in Spanish.

Damn The Gods

CHUD points the way to a new, longer trailer for the "Clash of the Titans" remake. It's basically a longer, smoother version of the first teaser so most of it you've already seen, and it's also still cutting to that heavy metal track everybody but me pissed and moaned about (drumming scorpion = win) but definately worth checking out for our first official glimpses/confirmations of Pegasus, Mount Olympus and The Kraken - which looks like a fairly elegant solution between the traditional giant-octopus and Harryhausen's four-armed mer-whatsit.


http://chud.com/articles/articles/21854/1/THE-KRAKEN-RELEASED/Page1.html

More importantly, the much-maligned "Titans Will Clash" tagline has been replaced by the newer, inifitely more awesome "Damn The Gods"... which now solidifies my earlier inkling that this remake is taking it's cues from "Jason & The Argonauts" in addition to it's official progenitor.
"Damn The Gods." I love that. I LOVE that.

2009 AFI Awards

AFI Movies of The Year – Official Selections

Coraline
The Hangover
The Hurt Locker
The Messenger
Precous
A Serious Man
A Single Man
Sugar
UP
Up In The Air

AFI TV Programas of the Year – Official Selections

The Big Bang Theory
Big Love
Friday Night Lights
Glee
Mad Men
Modern Family
The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency
Nurse Jackie
Party Down
True Blood

To check what the awards means go here and to visit the AFI site go here.

2009 Washington DC Film Critics Award Winners

The group announced the winners and here are some categories.

Picture: Up In The Air
Director: Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker
Actress: Carey Mulligan in An Education
Actor: George Clooney in Up In The Air
Animation: Up

Foreign Language Film: Sin Nombre (good film but better than A Prophet or The White Ribbon? No.)

To check winners in other categories go here.

35th Los Angeles Film Critics Award Winners

The group announced the winners and here are some categories.

Picture: The Hurt Locker
Runner-up: Up In The Air

Director: Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker
Runner-up: Michael Haneke for The White Ribbon

Actress: Yolande Moreau in Seraphine
Runner-up: Carey Mulligan in An Education

Actor: Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart
Runner-up: Colin Firth in A Single Man

Animation: Fantastic Mr. Fox
Runner-up: Up

Foreign Language Film: L'heure d'été (Summer Hours), Olivier Assayas (What???)
Runner-up: The White Ribbon

To check winners in other categories go here.

2009 New York Film Critics Online Award Winners

Here are the winners from this online group.

Best Picture: Avatar
Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker
Best Actress: Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia
Best Actor: Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart
Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz in Inglorious Basterds
Best Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique in Precious

Best Foreign Language Picture: The White Ribbon
Best Animated Feature: Up

To check the winners in all categories go here.

Old dogs

22nd European Films Award Winners

A few hours ago the Academy had the awards ceremony and here are the winners.

Best Film: Das Weisse Band (The White Ribbon), Michael Haneke, Germany, Austria, France and Italy (Bravo!)

Best Director: Michael Haneke for Das Weisse Band (The White Ribbon)
Best Actress: Kate Winslet in The Reader
Best Actor: Tahar Rahim in Un Prophete (A Prophet)
Best Screenwriter: Michael Haneke for Das Weisse Band (The White Ribbon)
Carlo Di Palma European Cinematographer: Anthony Dod Mantle for Antichrist and Slumdog Millionaire
EFA Prix D’Excellence: Brigitte Taillandier, Francis Wargnier, Jean-Paul Hurier & Marc Doisne for the Sound Design, Un Prophet (A Prophet)
European Discovery: Katalin Varga, Peter Strickland, Romania, UK and Hungary

FIPRESCI Prix: Tatarak (Sweet Rush), Andrzej Wajda, Poland
People’s Choice Award for Best European Film: Slumdog Millionaire

To check the winners in all categories please go here. Great films were honored today and for me both are excellent movies, Cheers! for Haneke and Audiard.

51st AFI Awards Award Winners

Tonight the ceremony will be broadcast live on Channel Nine in Australia and it will be a huge surprise if Samson & Delilah does not win the top award. If you feel like checking the nominees in all the categories please go here.

Tomorrow I’ll post the winners.

And the winners are...

As expected Warrick Thorton Samson & Delilah won several awards including Best Film, Best Direction, and Best Original Screenplay.

In the Adapted Screenplay Balibo won and Anthony LaPaglia won Best Lead Actor for the same movie. Best Actress went to Frances O'Connor in Blessed, Best Supporting Actress to Rachel Griffiths in Beatiful Kate and Best Supporting Actor to Oscar Isaac in Balibo.

To check all the awards including the TV categories go here.

2010 BAFTA’s News – Foreign-language Films

Can’t find the news at the official site but Variety is saying that only four (4) films from this year’s 65 Oscar entries have qualified for the BAFTA’s. That’s too little but take a look at the films: A Prophet from France, The White Ribbon from Germany, Harishchandrachi Factory from India and UK’s own Afghan Star. Great films even if I haven’t seen two.

Those films are among 40 eligible contenders that include movies like Almodovar’s Broken Embrances, Coco Before Chanel, Sweden’s Let the Right One In, Mesrine, The Class and Departures. Remember that to qualify the film has to have a UK release during 2009, so that’s why there are some “older” movies and just having a UK release qualifies them.

I’m very interested in finding the complete list of 40 films, so if any of you can help please feel free to leave the link as a comment. If you want to check the article at Variety go here.

2009 Oscar News – VFX Short List

Yesterday the Academy announced that 15 films have been selected as semifinalists for Achievement in Visual Effects and here they are.

“Angels & Demons”
“Avatar”
“Coraline”
“Disney’s A Christmas Carol”
“District 9”
“G-Force”
“G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra”
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”
“Sherlock Holmes”
“Star Trek”
“Terminator Salvation”
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”
“2012”
“Watchmen”
“Where the Wild Things Are”

Have seen some of the films and in my opinion the most awesome effects belong to 2012; but there is one that after getting terrible buzz now is getting excellent reviews: Avatar. Some claim that Cameron reinvented sfx (but the story is lousy), so have to watch it to find if is true or not. To read the Academy official announcement go here.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

LATEST 2010 OSCAR PREDICTIONS

With only Nine, Sherlock Holmes, It's Complicated and The Last Station left to see, here's where we now stand in this year's race...

BEST PICTURE

An Education
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The Last Station
Nine
Precious
A Single Man
Up
Up in the Air

BEST DIRECTOR

Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
James Cameron, Avatar
Lee Daniels, Precious
Peter Jackson, The Lovely Bones
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air

BEST ACTOR

Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

BEST ACTRESS

Marion Cotillard, Nine
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Anthony Mackie, The Hurt Locker
Tobey Maguire, Brothers
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Penelope Cruz, Nine
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Melanie Laurent, Inglourious Basterds
Mo’Nique, Precious

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

500 Days of Summer
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
A Serious Man
Up

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

An Education
Precious
A Single Man
Up in the Air
Where the Wild Things Are

BEST ANIMATED FILM

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess and the Frog
Up

BEST DOCUMENTARY

The Beaches of Agnes
Burma VJ
The Cove
Every Little Step
Mugabe and the White African

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Avatar
Bright Star
Nine
A Single Man
The White Ribbon

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

Bright Star
The Informant!
A Single Man
Star Trek
Up

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Bright Star
Inglourious Basterds
Nine
Public Enemies
A Single Man

BEST ART DIRECTION

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
Inglourious Basterds
The Lovely Bones
Nine
Star Trek

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Avatar
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

The (Non-Doc/Foreign/Short) Contenders: 9, 500 Days of Summer, Agora, Amelia, An Education, Antichrist, Anvil: The Story of Anvil, Avatar, Away We Go, The Blind Side, The Boys Are Back, Bright Star, Broken Embraces, Bronson, Brothers, Bruno, Capitalism: A Love Story, Cheri, A Christmas Carol, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Coco Before Chanel, Collapse, Coraline, The Cove, Crazy Heart, Creation, Crude, The Damned United, District 9, Everybody's Fine, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Fish Tank, Food Inc., Funny People, The Hangover, Harry Brown, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Humpday, The Hurt Locker, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, The Informant!, Inglourious Basterds, In the Loop, Invictus, It's Complicated, Julie & Julia, The Last Station, London River, Love Ranch, The Lovely Bones, The Men Who Stare at Goats, Micmacs, Moon, Nine, Ondine, Ponyo, Precious, The Princess and the Frog, Public Enemies, The Road, A Serious Man, A Single Man, Sin Nombre, The Soloist, Soul Kitchen, Star Trek, The Stoning of Soraya M., Sugar, Taking Woodstock, The Tempest, Terminator Salvation, Tetro, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Up, Up in the Air, Valentino: The Last Emperor, Watchmen, Whatever Works, Where the Wild Things Are, The White Ribbon, The Young Victoria

The moment?

The critics are starting to see "Avatar," (no, I haven't yet) and the early world is damn-near through the roof... EXACTLY the kind of feedback this particular movie needed to hopefully turn around all the "Dances With Smurfs" negativity that's been building around it since people first got a look at the plot. So... is this when it happens? Is this "Titanic" all over again, where everyone was sure it was a disaster in the making and then everything comes together when it finally shows?

I dunno... but thus far the most important report I've been waiting for was from Jeff Wells, who's probably the most stridently anti-fanboy, anti-genre-blockbuster guy doing movie-blogging right now - the epitome of someone who's just NOT looking to show kindness to a $300 Million mostly-CGI tentpole about blue aliens and marines in mecha-suits. Well, as of this morning... he's calling it a masterpiece:
http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2009/12/a_fine_madness.php

In fact, I don't think I've ever seen Wells react this way to this sort of movie. Overnight, he's gone from one it's cheif nay-sayers to proclaiming that it will get (and deserves to get) a Best Picture nomination:
http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2009/12/avatar_in_the_r.php

What does this mean? I dunno, but it's unexpected and definately gives me a good feeling.

Escape to the Movies: "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans"

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escape-to-the-movies/1219-Bad-Lieutenant

And here's this week's "Intermission," which is all about the film's director/adventurer/superhero Werner Herzog:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/moviebob/6866-Kneel-Before-Zog

67th Golden Globes Awards News

On Tuesday, December 15th at 5:00am PT the Hollywood Foreign Press Association will announce the nominations for the Golden Globes and while we wait here are some relevant news.

A record of 69 foreign language films are eligible for a Golden Globe nomination. As some of you recall this award does not limit one film per country, so you have several countries with more than one film. If you feel like checking the list please go here. From the list only 5 films will be nominated and honestly, it’s a hard choice from many excellent movies but I’m almost sure that A Prophet and The White Ribbon will be nominated and hope that films like Chile’s The Maid and Sweden’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo will be honored too.

According to a press release 173 live-action feature films (105 dramas and 68 comedies or musicals), 15 animated feature films, 133 television series (79 drama and 54 comedies), 33 mini-series or telefilms and a record 103 songs have been qualified for the awards.

This year Mavis Spences was selected as 2010 Miss Golden Globe, she’s Alfre Woodard daughter and as I already shared, great Ricky Gervais will host the show.

So we have just a few days to learn the nominees and about a month to be able to watch the movies I haven’t seen as the award ceremony will be on January 17.

THE B-LIST: SING, SING A SONG

Way, way back when we first discussed the slasher movie craze of the early 80s, we covered a lot of the tropes and clichés and possible subtexts to be found in the literally hundreds of such movies produced during that period. What we didn’t mention was the music. Now, we’re not talking about the immediately recognizable scores such as John Carpenter’s Halloween or Harry Manfredini’s Friday The 13th. No, we mean the fantastically weird theme songs which sometimes ran over the end credits. A few, like The Fat Boys’ Are You Ready For Freddy actually ended up being released as singles, but for genre nuts, the real gems are the obscure ones which you only heard if you hung around in the theater while most everyone else was making a beeline for the parking lot. What follows are excerpts from some of the most memorable…

APRIL FOOL’S DAY (1986)

This little diddy might sound like an odd choice to close out a horror movie, but from beginning to end April Fool’s Day is chock full of practical jokes (dark, dark jokes, but jokes just the same), so this tune fits right in with the tongue-in-cheek goings on.

MADMAN (1982)

As the unlucky counselors in this cult classic find out, Madman Marz is much more than just a tale told to scare the kiddies. However, that is how they’re first introduced to him, as nothing more than a legend to be recounted while sitting around the campfire. Listening to this, you can almost hear the s’mores sizzling.

MY BLOODY VALENTINE (1981)

Forget the noisy, crude remake, the original MBV is much loved by fans for its authentic settings and realistic, likable cast (none of whom burst into a dwarf’s room butt naked). This folksy number perfectly captures the feel of the rundown blue collar mining town which provides the backdrop for Harry Warden’s dirty deeds.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME (1981)

Melissa Sue Anderson spends much of this movie confused and tortured, and then it gets worse for her towards the end. The movie finishes on a particularly downbeat note for her character, which, I’m sure you’ll agree, is more than adequately reflected in this song.

DON’T GO IN THE WOODS (1981)

This movie is legendarily bad. Nuff said.

I have to admit, as cheesy as some of these songs are, I really miss them whenever I give in and watch a modern slasher. A lot of the generic indie rock and heavy metal pieces you get at the end of today’s movies (and some of the old, let’s be fair) are tolerable enough I suppose, but you can tell they were just slapped on because that’s the song style popular with the intended demographic. What makes these old songs, even the corny ones, so much better is that they actually feel like a part of the movie, intimately connected with the story you’ve been watching. Even for dumb slasher flicks, It makes for an all around more immersive movie going experience.

In a way it’s like the stuff we’re supposed to hear at mass. As the Catechism points out, “Song and music fulfill their function as signs in a manner all the more significant when they are "more closely connected… with the liturgical action," according to three principal criteria: beauty expressive of prayer, the unanimous participation of the assembly at the designated moments, and the solemn character of the celebration. In this way they participate in the purpose of the liturgical words and actions: the glory of God and the sanctification of the faithful.” Needless to say, there are arguments to be made that much of contemporary liturgical music doesn’t meet these standards.

With all the other problems ongoing in The Church right now, the state of liturgical music might not seem high on the list. But In his autobiography, Milestones: Memoirs 1927-1977, the future Pope Benedict XVI wrote “I am convinced that the crisis in the Church that we are experiencing today is to a large extent due to the disintegration of the liturgy, which at times has even come to be conceived of etsi Deus non daretur: in that it is a matter of indifference whether or not God exists and whether or not He speaks to us and hears us. But when the community of faith, the world-wide unity of the Church and her history, and the mystery of the living Christ are no longer visible in the liturgy, where else, then, is the Church to become visible in her spiritual essence?”

The Pope wasn’t speaking solely of music, of course, but it was part of his discussion. Music matters. As we noted in the examples above, the proper song in a movie can make for a more memorable experience. The proper song in a mass can bring a person to God.

New "OverThinker" at ScrewAttack

FYI guys, the new 30th episode of "Game OverThinker," a side-by-side of "Modern Warfare 2" and "New Super Mario Bros. Wii," is up NOW at ScrewAttack:
http://screwattack.com/videos/TGO-A-Tale-of-Two-Games

Sorceror's Apprentice

So, folks... what do we make of this trailer for Disney/Bruckheimer's new fantasy-actioner "The Sorceror's Apprentice," another of the growingly-common subset of genre films attaching a 'name title' to what appears to be an original story in order to look more like a franchise blockbuster?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h_fMAV7jXc

The basic idea seems to be a bare-outline "Harry Potter" reworked from a classical British "special boy" structure to an American one - i.e. instead of admittance to a prestigious elite academy being the seemingly-ordinary "Chosen One's" passage to skill-honing and higher destiny (the Dickensian/British model) he'll be schooled in badass-lonerhood by an older badass-loner, "Karate Kid"/"Rocky"-style. All told, doesn't look half-bad - gotta love the dragon and the animated Empire State eagle. Though, yes, the presence of Nicolas Cage means at least a 50/50 chance of otherworldly brilliance or out-of-place awkwardness.

Finally, GOOD NEWS about "The Wolf Man."

Universal's remake of "The Wolf Man," with Benicio Del Toro as the title monster, has had easily the most (publically) problematic production of any film in recent memory: The first director was fired/quit just as it was gearing up, there were public spats about practical-vs-CGI FX between creature-maker Rick Baker and the production, and recently new editors were hired to "punch up" the finished footage. All signs pointed to the usual trouble: A potentially-cool genre film getting watered-down by a studio afraid to make something awesome and maybe even a little dangerous. It also, even from it's trailers, looked A LOT "bigger" and thus more expensive than many might have been expecting, which could only ADD to the concern if you follow these things: Even if your movie is about a monster who's only real ability is tearing people limb-from-limb, a studio spending big money usually wants a "safe" PG13 rating to garauntee maximum profit.



So, then, it comes as not just good news but potentially SPECTACULAR news that "The Wolf Man" has been rated R for "bloody horror, violence and gore." Now, that DOESN'T necessarily mean all the problems haven't resulted in a less-than-great film, but it IS a strong indicator that things might be going in the right direction. An R-rating, at it's fundamental level, usually means that the film was made "uncompromised" to a certain degree; it also possibly tells us that Universal might think they have something pretty good on their hands, since a "bad" genre film would absolutely get saddled with a PG13 in order to increase it's earning capacity.

If it's "that" good, I'm interested to see what it's reception does for journeyman director Joe Johnston, who's been making solid films without becoming much of a "name" for DECADES now. If this works out, it could end up a big secondary buzz-point for the "Captain America" movie he's set to make for Marvel (if that's still happening, there hasn't been WORD ONE about it since they announced they were making it.)

Spider-Man 4 to get it half right?

File this under "probably strange enough to be semi-true," but Movieline says they know who the new people are in "Spider-Man 4": http://www.movieline.com/2009/12/exclusive-spider-man-4-circling-john-malkovich-anne-hathaway.php?page=1

Sez them, Sony Pictures vetoed "The Lizard" for being too strange; so the main enemy will be "The Vulture" - possibly to be played by John Malkovich. Sez them also: The story about Felicia Hardy ("The Black Cat") turning up is also true, as is rumored casting of Anne Hathaway, except instead of Cat she'll become a female counterpart to Vulture. (Vulture has wings, for the record. That's pretty much the whole idea.)

Some of this sounds like bullshit, some of it doesn't. Vulture is 100% plausible. He's part of the "main cast" of 60s Spider-Man enemies that Raimi prefers to draw from (Rhino, Mysterio, Shocker, Electro and Beetle are most of the others) and he fits in nicely with the general theme of main bad guys from the better-recieved (than #3) first films - i.e. an inventor using his technology to go on a crime/revenge spree. It's also true that Raimi has been trying like hell to get him into the series for a long time - he was supposed to be "co-baddie" in Part 3 before Marvel/Sony insisted on Venom. If you're wondering why Lizard is apparently too strange for the screen but alien-goo-monster Venom wasn't, simple: Money. Venom is one of Marvel's most consistently-marketable properties on the toy/shirt side (he's never been able to carry a book, though.)

The "made-up" part, if there is one, is probably Hathaway-as-Hardy-as-"Vulteress;" but not enough to be dissmissed outright. A recurring theme (THE recurring theme?) in Vulture stories is that he's an old man, and his flying-suit technology is always getting stolen by younger, more ambitious wannabes. If so, it's likely that this was in the script from the beginning and someone had the idea to borrow the name of an existing supporting-player for her civilian identity. Unfortunately for them, as always happens with these things, a casting sheet got to the fans before the announcement did, and now instead of going "heh, thats a reference" they'll be all bent out of shape at the character not being in it's original form (doubly true here, since let's face it - LOT'S of people wanted to see a flesh-and-blood actress in that outfit.)

Movieline isn't a "fanboy" site, so if this is either close to or very far away from truth, there'll be word from Sony soon enough.

NOW SHOWING AT A BLOG NEAR YOU

Ahhh, nothing like watching the Wolfman and Igor TCB and dig it to Amos Moses is there? It seems the upcoming review for Voyage Of The Rock Aliens has put us in the mood for some aural delights around here. Fortunately, there happens to be a few to be found out there in cyberspace which match up with our particular interests, and we thought we’d share them with the rest of you.

First up, we have renowned Catholic philosopher Peter Kreeft’s self described three point sermon on screenwriting. This is a short 30 minute speech delivered to a roomful of film students given with the hopes of helping them to understand the role their religion can play in their chosen profession. He also gives them some pointers on writing good screenplays which I hope at least 90% of them follow. Why not 100%? Well, we have to keep some of them writing bad movies, otherwise we’d be out of business here.

Which isn’t to say we don’t appreciate good writing when we see it. Or hear it for that matter. Over at the Forgotten Classics podcast the Happy Catholic is smack dab in the middle of a reading of The Uninvited which, if you’re not familiar with the title, was made into an excellent movie back in 1944 with Ray Milland. There are differences between the book and the film adaptation, of course, but this is one of the few cases where both are worth the time spent with them.

I haven’t read the Twilight books or seen their adaptations, so I can’t say if the same holds true for those works. Luckily, Father Barron over at The Word On Fire has taken a peak at the films, and he’s put his brief opinion on the current vampire craze up on YouTube. Now all you fans of smooth skinned shirtless adolescents need not fret, the good father doesn’t take any potshots at the movie, but rather discusses some of the possible reasons a secular culture has become so entranced with nosferatu.

If you’re not among the cult of the modern day vampire, however, and would prefer something with a little more teeth to it, then you might try hopping over to the Catholic Under The Hood podcast where Father Seraphim takes a look at what Catholics have believed about werewolves over the centuries. Hair raising? Maybe. Interesting? Definitely.

And finally, I would be remiss if I did not point out that The Flicks That Church Forgot podcast is back up and running. Put together by Peter Laws, a Baptist minister across the pond, the show covers pretty much the same ground we do around here, just without the lengthy quotes from the Catholic Catechism. Hey, nobody’s perfect right? Still, the good minister is taking a shot at dragging Christian meaning out of the 1988 cheese fest Slugs this week, so I have to give him his due.

Well, that should be enough to give everybody’s Ipod a good work out for awhile. And be sure to stay tuned here over the next couple of weeks as the hits will just keep on coming.

Escape to the Movies: "Ninja Assassin"

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escape-to-the-movies/1155-Ninja-Assassin

And here's this week's "Intermission," which is about "Blind Side." Because why not?
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/moviebob/6858-The-Bland-Side

COMING ATTRACTIONS: VOYAGE OF THE ROCK ALIENS

Coming up next, our first ever musical! Why, oh why do I do these things to myself?