January 2011 Archives

The nominations have been announced, Ben Affleck is crying in a pile of his money after getting passed over again, and the confident (or egotistical) are preparing their acceptance speeches, while taking meetings with high priced fashion consultants (no one wants Joan Rivers eviscerating them on the red carpet).    

Now, it is time for me to predict the winners.  Why wait a month?  Then, Joan Rivers can eviscerate me for being wrong.  











 

It's hard to do another exorcism movie that could ever come close to being as powerful and frightening as The Exorcist (unless you have a cool new twist like The Last Exorcism), so The Rite hits all of the usual plot twists as director Mikael Hafstrom hopes Anthony Hopkins' campy antics will entertain you enough to keep your attention.

Yes, that wailing sound you heard at 8:43 AM this morning was Ben Affleck painfully crying out "What do I have to do to impress you people!" as The Town became the best movie of the year not to get an Oscar nomination. 

Seriously!?!?!?!! 

127 Hours was not a better film (in my humble opinion), but it, and indie darling Winter's Bone, surprisingly earned Best Picture nominations over the action-packed crime thriller. 

Who else shocked us this morning when the Oscar nominations were announced?

Tuesday morning 8:38 AM EST/5:38 AM PST is the moment when careers will be made, effusive praise will be heaped upon the chosen ones and hearts will be broken. 

Who will be nominated for an Oscar this year? 

I am laying it on the line, risking mockery from all of you if (when?) I am wrong, and jeopardizing what little credibility I have left. 

Today, I give you my predictions for who will be nominated, and watch NewsPlus on DC50tv this Friday at 7:30 AM or Sunday at 10 AM to see who I think will win. 

I believe host Mark Segraves ought to give me a special prize for each prediction I get right.  A Reese's Peanut Butter Cup for each winner I predict correctly?  Let's start the emails, tweets and Facebook pokes right now!

In February 2007, Eddie Murphy was riding high!  He had been nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars for his career changing performance in Dreamgirls.  Everyone was talking about how serious and dramatic he could be, and it looked like he was a lock to win the Oscar.  Then, Norbit came out.

Norbit was the anti-Oscar movie filled with more potty humor than a janitorial conference, and Eddie sat there steaming on Oscar night when he lost.  I still think voters didn't want to reward him after returning to the flatulence genre.  

By starring in an Ashton Kutcher movie, has Natalie Portman dared to tempt the Norbit curse and the wrath of Oscar voters? 

Set in 1940, Jim Sturgess stars as Janusz - a Polish man captured as a political prisoner by the Commies and sent to Siberia with the worst and most heinous of criminals known to mankind, as well as others jailed for their views.  

While on the inside, Janusz is convinced a jailbreak is possible, so he teams with several others, including a mysterious American, Mr. Smith (Ed Harris, who sounds like a an annoyed and ticked off Ed Harris the whole time), and Russian street criminal, Valka (Colin Farrell, with one of those Russian accents that makes me wonder if he will ever catch Moose and Squirrel, but the kind of awesome hair you shouldn't be able to have in the middle of the Siberian tundra).

Will the men make it to freedom?

Is the rugged terrain all around them too much to overcome?

Sometimes, being a great movie is not enough.  Unfortunately, The Weinstein Company is so busy promoting the Oscar hopes of its other movies, Blue Valentine and The King's Speech, that The Company Men is like the forgotten, redheaded stepchild from Dad's first marriage that no one wants to talk about at Thanksgiving dinner.  That leaves it to me to tell you to see it as soon as you can.  The Company Men is one of the most underrated films you will ever see. 

Ben "I just keep blowing up your illusions of how bad I was" Affleck stars as Bobby Walker - a hotshot salesman living a good life, in a big house, with fancy cars, until the company decides it needs to downsize to continue to prosper.  Now, he's looking for a new job and working with his wife, Maggie (Rosemarie DeWitt)  trying to figure out how to keep the bills paid, while those survivors left behind at work are wondering what will happen next and to whom.

Will Gene McClary (Tommy Lee Jones) be able to convince lifelong pal and boss James Salinger (Craig T. Nelson) to take a different course of action?

Will Bobby's boss, Phil Woodward (Chris Cooper), be next?

Think you know how Buried will end? Think again. I bet you don't see this one coming. It proves you don't need some overly complicated scheme to surprise us, just a brain and a decent idea.  It is the best ending of the year.

Read more about Buried.

Are you ready to see Seth Rogen in 3D?  Yeah, me neither.

Seth Rogen stars as Britt Reid - the son of a millionaire newspaper publisher (played by Tom Wilkinson, and you know it's a movie because no one makes millions publishing newspapers anymore).  Of course, he's kind of a lazy screw up, and Dad has always been harsh on him, but everything changes when Britt's father suddenly passes away.

Not excited about running a publishing empire, the playboy who likes to party has started to get a crazy idea.  After meeting the mysterious Kato (Jay Chou) and learning about all of the wildly imaginative inventions and weapons he has created, Britt has decided to join forces with him to fight crime, but their efforts lead to the duo being misunderstood and considered Public Enemy #1 (or maybe that's Public Enemies #1 and #2?).

Can The Green Hornet and Kato survive when LA's biggest crime lord, Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz), tries to get them out of the picture?

Will Britt be more successful as a crime fighter than he has at being a journalist?

Vince Vaughn and Kevin James star as Ronny and Nick - two lifelong buddies with a business on the verge of becoming ubersuccessful.  Ronny is the voice and business acumen behind the operation, while Nick is the brains behind the car engines they build, and they have a lucrative deal with Chrysler just within reach if Nick successfully can make an electric/hybrid engine that sounds like a muscle car.   

However, when Ronny witnesses Nick's wife, Geneva (Winona Ryder), fooling around with an oddly tattooed  man, Zip (Channing "Abs of Steel" Tatum), he's not exactly sure how or if he should break the news.

Can Nick, already under immense pressure, handle such a revelation?

Would he believe Ronny?

Is that the most airbrushed poster you have ever scene?

As the awards season starts to pull into the final stretch, it's time for me to weigh in. 

I am one of the voters for The Critics Choice Awards, broadcast on VH1 Friday, January 14 at 9 PM, so you know it is 100 times better than The Golden Globes (which are fixed, anyway*)

Who do I think will win, and how will it impact the Oscar noms on Jan. 25? 

The Social Network has won just about every award, found it self on just about every year end top 10 list, and appears to be marching to Oscar supremacy.

Isn't it time you checked it out?

Maybe you should check it out again?

Read more about The Social Network here.







4 Waffles (Out of 4)





 

Sometimes, I think it is more likely President Obama, The Situation and Rush Limbaugh would watch the Super Bowl together than Ghostbusters 3 will FINALLY get made.  Are we closer to seeing Bill Murray getting slimed again than Rush asking the Prez to pass the chips, while The Situation reprimands them both for taking in too many carbs?  

As reported by Sandy Cohen of the Associated Press, the script for the third Ghostbusters movie has been written, according to writer/director/producer Ivan Reitman.

Let's keep our heads about us. 

This doesn't mean Bill Murray has read it and approved.

Most people try to jump into the New Year with resolutions to live life better and perform at the highest levels possible.  Hollywood starts the New Year with Country Strong.

Gwyneth Paltrow stars as Kelly Canter - the biggest country music star on the planet, who has been in rehab since a very public meltdown.  Her husband and manager, James (Tim McGraw), wants to rush her back out on tour to restart Kelly's career, but a kindly songwriter (who wears too much eye make up) she meets in rehab, Beau (Garrett Hedlund), is worried it is too much too soon.  Also, he has been schtupping her (you know, the horizontal mambo, the wacka wacka boomdy boomdy, bumping uglies, getting it on, sex).

Of course, James needs Beau on tour to help keep Kelly on the wagon, and to help Beau's pal, Chiles Stanton (Leighton Meester), get over her stage fright, so she can be one of the opening acts.  As you can imagine, Chiles and Beau kind of have a thing going, too.  

Did Kelly leave rehab too soon?

Can Chiles become the superstar she can be?

Great song.  Bad movie.

Set in Medieval times, Nicolas Cage stars as Behmen - a knight who loves killing and marauding, until he is lead into an attack on women and children. 

After that horrible incident, Behmen and his buddy, Felson (Ron Perlman) decide to desert the army, but get captured and forced into transporting a mysterious young girl (Claire Foy) to trial for being The Black Witch who has caused what we call The Black Plague.  

Is she a witch?  

Does she float?

Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams star as Dean and Cindy - a young married couple having trouble.  What started out as magical romance has become a day-to-day grind to tolerate each other.  However, they still want to make it work, and try to find ways to rekindle the relationship, as the audience gets to look back and see how they first fell in love.

Machete

It started off as the greatest faux trailer on the planet when co-writer/co-director Robert Rodriguez contributed Machete to Quentin Tarantino's Grindhouse.  Crowds cheered and laughed.  We all walked out thinking this would be a great movie if they decided to make it, and they did!  OK.  It turns out it's not great, but it is good.

Read more about Machete.